1. Demographic and social statistics (World Bank)1. Demographic and social statistics (World Bank)1.5 Income and consumption (World Bank)

Household Income and Expenditure

• Database on Household Expenditure and Income Data for Transitional Economies developed as part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies. The data addresses critical questions, such as the group most likely to be poor, how well social assistance programs reach people, and the kinds of programs that would most effectively reduce poverty (http://go.worldbank.org/KTN5N3L4H0).

Gender

• Gender Data Portal, one-stop-shop for gender statistics and information, was launched in July 2012. Data are organized under six thematic headings, which are aligned to the themes identified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. The portal includes gender datasets from the United Nations(UN) compiled by its Regional Commissions and Sectoral Agencies, as well as World Bank conducted or funded surveys and reports, such as the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) on Gender and Development. The data available should enable assessment of Bank funding of gender-informed activities , as well as monitoring of country progress on key development agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals , IDA 16 and the Bank’s Corporate Scorecard. This portal is a work in progress -- the database will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, and as new gender priorities are identified. The portal is available at http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/.

• Global assessment of gender issues in household surveys is underway to understand if gender relevant information is collected in existing household surveys and censuses. The assessment form is ready to assess a wide collection of survey questionnaires, and the assessment will take place in early 2013.

• The Bank has commissioned and provided support for UNSD to finalize the Gender Statistics Manual and Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women.

• Multi-media training modules for collecting, analyzing, and using gender data have been developed and are available in the Gender Data Portal.

• A special segment on violence against women, including interviews with government officials and women leaders, was developed for advocacy purposes, in response to demand from developing countries.

• Statistical capacity building project for improving gender statistics is underway in Burundi, Kenya and Vietnam.

Governance indicators

• The World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency and the World Bank Institute produce the annual database Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI estimates six dimensions of governance covering215 countries and territories for 1996-2011: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The latest aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from over 30 data sources. Individual measures of governance are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators. Both point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of error are presented for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. The WGI also addresses various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of error, significance of changes over time, and correlation between governance and income. Visit World Bank’s Open data website on WGI at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators or access the World Bank Institute's Governance website at: http://www.govindicators.org.

• The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment exercise is carried out annually by World Bank Staff. Numerical scores of International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries, known as the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) were first publicly disclosed in June 2006. Country performance is assessed against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions. See the IRAI database at http://go.worldbank.org/S2THWI1X60.

Actionable Governance Indicators

• Actionable governance indicators focus on specific aspects of governance, and are designed to provide guidance on the design of reforms and the monitoring of impacts. See https://www.agidata.org/Site/

Household Income and Expenditure

• Database on Household Expenditure and Income Data for Transitional Economies developed as part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies. The data addresses critical questions, such as the group most likely to be poor, how well social assistance programs reach people, and the kinds of programs that would most effectively reduce poverty (http://go.worldbank.org/KTN5N3L4H0).

Gender

• Gender Data Portal, one-stop-shop for gender statistics and information, was launched in July 2012. Data are organized under six thematic headings, which are aligned to the themes identified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. The portal includes gender datasets from the United Nations(UN) compiled by its Regional Commissions and Sectoral Agencies, as well as World Bank conducted or funded surveys and reports, such as the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) on Gender and Development. The data available should enable assessment of Bank funding of gender-informed activities , as well as monitoring of country progress on key development agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals , IDA 16 and the Bank’s Corporate Scorecard. This portal is a work in progress -- the database will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, and as new gender priorities are identified. The portal is available at http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/.

• Global assessment of gender issues in household surveys is underway to understand if gender relevant information is collected in existing household surveys and censuses. The assessment form is ready to assess a wide collection of survey questionnaires, and the assessment will take place in early 2013.

• The Bank has commissioned and provided support for UNSD to finalize the Gender Statistics Manual and Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women.

• Multi-media training modules for collecting, analyzing, and using gender data have been developed and are available in the Gender Data Portal.

• A special segment on violence against women, including interviews with government officials and women leaders, was developed for advocacy purposes, in response to demand from developing countries.

• Statistical capacity building project for improving gender statistics is underway in Burundi, Kenya and Vietnam.

Governance indicators

• The World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency and the World Bank Institute produce the annual database Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI estimates six dimensions of governance covering215 countries and territories for 1996-2011: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The latest aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from over 30 data sources. Individual measures of governance are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators. Both point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of error are presented for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. The WGI also addresses various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of error, significance of changes over time, and correlation between governance and income. Visit World Bank’s Open data website on WGI at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators or access the World Bank Institute's Governance website at: http://www.govindicators.org.

• The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment exercise is carried out annually by World Bank Staff. Numerical scores of International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries, known as the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) were first publicly disclosed in June 2006. Country performance is assessed against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions. See the IRAI database at http://go.worldbank.org/S2THWI1X60.

Actionable Governance Indicators

• Actionable governance indicators focus on specific aspects of governance, and are designed to provide guidance on the design of reforms and the monitoring of impacts. See https://www.agidata.org/Site/

Household Income and Expenditure

• Database on Household Expenditure and Income Data for Transitional Economies developed as part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies. The data addresses critical questions, such as the group most likely to be poor, how well social assistance programs reach people, and the kinds of programs that would most effectively reduce poverty (http://go.worldbank.org/KTN5N3L4H0).

Gender

• Gender Data Portal, one-stop-shop for gender statistics and information, was launched in July 2012. Data are organized under six thematic headings, which are aligned to the themes identified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. The portal includes gender datasets from the United Nations(UN) compiled by its Regional Commissions and Sectoral Agencies, as well as World Bank conducted or funded surveys and reports, such as the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) on Gender and Development. The data available should enable assessment of Bank funding of gender-informed activities , as well as monitoring of country progress on key development agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals , IDA 16 and the Bank’s Corporate Scorecard. This portal is a work in progress -- the database will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, and as new gender priorities are identified. The portal is available at http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/.

• Global assessment of gender issues in household surveys is underway to understand if gender relevant information is collected in existing household surveys and censuses. The assessment form is ready to assess a wide collection of survey questionnaires, and the assessment will take place in early 2013.

• The Bank has commissioned and provided support for UNSD to finalize the Gender Statistics Manual and Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women.

• Multi-media training modules for collecting, analyzing, and using gender data have been developed and are available in the Gender Data Portal.

• A special segment on violence against women, including interviews with government officials and women leaders, was developed for advocacy purposes, in response to demand from developing countries.

• Statistical capacity building project for improving gender statistics is underway in Burundi, Kenya and Vietnam.

Governance indicators

• The World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency and the World Bank Institute produce the annual database Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI estimates six dimensions of governance covering215 countries and territories for 1996-2011: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The latest aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from over 30 data sources. Individual measures of governance are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators. Both point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of error are presented for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. The WGI also addresses various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of error, significance of changes over time, and correlation between governance and income. Visit World Bank’s Open data website on WGI at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators or access the World Bank Institute's Governance website at: http://www.govindicators.org.

• The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment exercise is carried out annually by World Bank Staff. Numerical scores of International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries, known as the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) were first publicly disclosed in June 2006. Country performance is assessed against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions. See the IRAI database at http://go.worldbank.org/S2THWI1X60.

Actionable Governance Indicators

• Actionable governance indicators focus on specific aspects of governance, and are designed to provide guidance on the design of reforms and the monitoring of impacts. See https://www.agidata.org/Site/

Household Income and Expenditure

• Database on Household Expenditure and Income Data for Transitional Economies developed as part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies. The data addresses critical questions, such as the group most likely to be poor, how well social assistance programs reach people, and the kinds of programs that would most effectively reduce poverty (http://go.worldbank.org/KTN5N3L4H0).

Gender

• Gender Data Portal, one-stop-shop for gender statistics and information, was launched in July 2012. Data are organized under six thematic headings, which are aligned to the themes identified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. The portal includes gender datasets from the United Nations(UN) compiled by its Regional Commissions and Sectoral Agencies, as well as World Bank conducted or funded surveys and reports, such as the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) on Gender and Development. The data available should enable assessment of Bank funding of gender-informed activities , as well as monitoring of country progress on key development agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals , IDA 16 and the Bank’s Corporate Scorecard. This portal is a work in progress -- the database will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, and as new gender priorities are identified. The portal is available at http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/.

• Global assessment of gender issues in household surveys is underway to understand if gender relevant information is collected in existing household surveys and censuses. The assessment form is ready to assess a wide collection of survey questionnaires, and the assessment will take place in early 2013.

• The Bank has commissioned and provided support for UNSD to finalize the Gender Statistics Manual and Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women.

• Multi-media training modules for collecting, analyzing, and using gender data have been developed and are available in the Gender Data Portal.

• A special segment on violence against women, including interviews with government officials and women leaders, was developed for advocacy purposes, in response to demand from developing countries.

• Statistical capacity building project for improving gender statistics is underway in Burundi, Kenya and Vietnam.

Governance indicators

• The World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency and the World Bank Institute produce the annual database Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI estimates six dimensions of governance covering215 countries and territories for 1996-2011: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The latest aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from over 30 data sources. Individual measures of governance are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators. Both point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of error are presented for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. The WGI also addresses various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of error, significance of changes over time, and correlation between governance and income. Visit World Bank’s Open data website on WGI at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators or access the World Bank Institute's Governance website at: http://www.govindicators.org.

• The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment exercise is carried out annually by World Bank Staff. Numerical scores of International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries, known as the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) were first publicly disclosed in June 2006. Country performance is assessed against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions. See the IRAI database at http://go.worldbank.org/S2THWI1X60.

Actionable Governance Indicators

• Actionable governance indicators focus on specific aspects of governance, and are designed to provide guidance on the design of reforms and the monitoring of impacts. See https://www.agidata.org/Site/

5. Strategic and managerial issues of official statistics (World Bank)1.5 Income and consumption (World Bank)

Household Income and Expenditure

• Database on Household Expenditure and Income Data for Transitional Economies developed as part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies. The data addresses critical questions, such as the group most likely to be poor, how well social assistance programs reach people, and the kinds of programs that would most effectively reduce poverty (http://go.worldbank.org/KTN5N3L4H0).

Gender

• Gender Data Portal, one-stop-shop for gender statistics and information, was launched in July 2012. Data are organized under six thematic headings, which are aligned to the themes identified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. The portal includes gender datasets from the United Nations(UN) compiled by its Regional Commissions and Sectoral Agencies, as well as World Bank conducted or funded surveys and reports, such as the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) on Gender and Development. The data available should enable assessment of Bank funding of gender-informed activities , as well as monitoring of country progress on key development agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals , IDA 16 and the Bank’s Corporate Scorecard. This portal is a work in progress -- the database will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, and as new gender priorities are identified. The portal is available at http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/.

• Global assessment of gender issues in household surveys is underway to understand if gender relevant information is collected in existing household surveys and censuses. The assessment form is ready to assess a wide collection of survey questionnaires, and the assessment will take place in early 2013.

• The Bank has commissioned and provided support for UNSD to finalize the Gender Statistics Manual and Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women.

• Multi-media training modules for collecting, analyzing, and using gender data have been developed and are available in the Gender Data Portal.

• A special segment on violence against women, including interviews with government officials and women leaders, was developed for advocacy purposes, in response to demand from developing countries.

• Statistical capacity building project for improving gender statistics is underway in Burundi, Kenya and Vietnam.

Governance indicators

• The World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency and the World Bank Institute produce the annual database Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI estimates six dimensions of governance covering215 countries and territories for 1996-2011: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The latest aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from over 30 data sources. Individual measures of governance are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators. Both point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of error are presented for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. The WGI also addresses various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of error, significance of changes over time, and correlation between governance and income. Visit World Bank’s Open data website on WGI at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators or access the World Bank Institute's Governance website at: http://www.govindicators.org.

• The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment exercise is carried out annually by World Bank Staff. Numerical scores of International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries, known as the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) were first publicly disclosed in June 2006. Country performance is assessed against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions. See the IRAI database at http://go.worldbank.org/S2THWI1X60.

Actionable Governance Indicators

• Actionable governance indicators focus on specific aspects of governance, and are designed to provide guidance on the design of reforms and the monitoring of impacts. See https://www.agidata.org/Site/

Gross National Income

Ongoing work

Atlas GNI per Capital

• The World Bank estimates dollar converted gross national income (GNI) per capita for all borrowing member countries, as well as most other economies.

• Per capita GNI for a country in local currency terms is converted into U.S. dollars by applying the Atlas conversion factor. The Atlas conversion factor is the simple arithmetic average of the current exchange rate and the exchange rates in the previous two years adjusted for the ratio of domestic to international inflation. The change in the GDP-deflator is used as a measure of domestic inflation, and the change in the SDR-deflator to represent international inflation. The SDR-deflator is compiled as a weighted average of the EURO-area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan's GDP-deflators.

• The purpose of applying the Atlas conversion factor is to lessen the effect of fluctuations and abrupt changes in the exchange rate, which can be heavily affected by capital flows. Thus, income measures converted using the Atlas conversion factor tend to be more stable over time, and changes in income rankings are more likely to reflect changes in relative economic performance than exchange rate fluctuations.

National Accounts

• The Bank continues its collaboration with the UN, IMF, OECD, and EUROSTAT through the Inter-Secretariat working group on national accounts (ISWGNA). The World Bank supports the implementation of the 2008 SNA in developing countries through activities of its regular work program of statistical capacity building, as well as through the ICP Program. The World Bank is preparing two handbooks complimenting the 2008 SNA aimed specifically at supporting national accountants in small developing countries. The first of these is the 2008 SNA - Concepts in Brief, and the second an accompanying implementation guide, the 2008 SNA - Implementation in Brief. The World Bank has also developed an e-learning course on National Accounts, which will is provided free of charge on the web.

2.3 Business statistics (World Bank)

Business statistics

Doing Business

• The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 185 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. Topics include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. See the Doing Business website: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ or from the Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database.

Enterprise Surveys

• An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. More detailed information about the Enterprise Surveys can be found on the Methodology page. See the Enterprise survey website: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI)

• The PPI Project Database has data on more than 6,000 infrastructure projects in 139 low- and middle-income countries. The database is the leading source of PPI trends in the developing world, covering projects in the energy, telecommunications, transport, and water and sewerage. See the PPI database: http://ppi.worldbank.org/.

Household Income and Expenditure

• Database on Household Expenditure and Income Data for Transitional Economies developed as part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies. The data addresses critical questions, such as the group most likely to be poor, how well social assistance programs reach people, and the kinds of programs that would most effectively reduce poverty (http://go.worldbank.org/KTN5N3L4H0).

Gender

• Gender Data Portal, one-stop-shop for gender statistics and information, was launched in July 2012. Data are organized under six thematic headings, which are aligned to the themes identified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. The portal includes gender datasets from the United Nations(UN) compiled by its Regional Commissions and Sectoral Agencies, as well as World Bank conducted or funded surveys and reports, such as the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) on Gender and Development. The data available should enable assessment of Bank funding of gender-informed activities , as well as monitoring of country progress on key development agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals , IDA 16 and the Bank’s Corporate Scorecard. This portal is a work in progress -- the database will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, and as new gender priorities are identified. The portal is available at http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/.

• Global assessment of gender issues in household surveys is underway to understand if gender relevant information is collected in existing household surveys and censuses. The assessment form is ready to assess a wide collection of survey questionnaires, and the assessment will take place in early 2013.

• The Bank has commissioned and provided support for UNSD to finalize the Gender Statistics Manual and Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women.

• Multi-media training modules for collecting, analyzing, and using gender data have been developed and are available in the Gender Data Portal.

• A special segment on violence against women, including interviews with government officials and women leaders, was developed for advocacy purposes, in response to demand from developing countries.

• Statistical capacity building project for improving gender statistics is underway in Burundi, Kenya and Vietnam.

Governance indicators

• The World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency and the World Bank Institute produce the annual database Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI estimates six dimensions of governance covering215 countries and territories for 1996-2011: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The latest aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from over 30 data sources. Individual measures of governance are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators. Both point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of error are presented for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. The WGI also addresses various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of error, significance of changes over time, and correlation between governance and income. Visit World Bank’s Open data website on WGI at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators or access the World Bank Institute's Governance website at: http://www.govindicators.org.

• The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment exercise is carried out annually by World Bank Staff. Numerical scores of International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries, known as the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) were first publicly disclosed in June 2006. Country performance is assessed against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions. See the IRAI database at http://go.worldbank.org/S2THWI1X60.

Actionable Governance Indicators

• Actionable governance indicators focus on specific aspects of governance, and are designed to provide guidance on the design of reforms and the monitoring of impacts. See https://www.agidata.org/Site/

2.6 International trade and balance of payments (World Bank)

External Debt Statistics

• The World Bank's Debt Reporting System (DRS) requires every member country, which has received either an IBRD loan or an IDA credit to provide information on its external debt. The borrowing countries are required to report their long-term external debt on the following forms:

• Form 1 - Description of Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed which consists of information on each loan characteristics, such as commitment date, amount of loan commitment, loan purpose, interest rate, and terms and conditions of payments.

• Form 1A - Schedule of Drawings and Principal and Interest Payments for Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed, purpose of which is to enable the Bank to make projections of future payments of principal and interest for those loans that have irregular patterns of repayments.

• Form 2 - Individual External Public Debts and Private Debts Publicly Guaranteed: Current Status and Transactions During Period. This form contains loan-by-loan information on debt stocks and debt flows during the reporting period.

• The World Bank has been working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat and the UNCTAD to improve the data collection across the globe.

• The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources on a quarterly basis. The creditor/market data are complemented in JEDH using national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Database. National data has been extended to include not only SDDS/QEDS countries, but also GDDS/QEDS countries. The JEDH uses Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), which applies technological innovation to the context and content of information being exchanged with the aim of generating efficiencies through the convergence of data flows into a common framework. The Bank is also working in collaboration with the IMF and other partners to improve statistics on remittance flows to developing countries. The system is accessible from: http://www.jedh.org.

• The Quarterly External Debt (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed external debt data of countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Sixty eight SDDS countries (68) and forty two (42)GDDS countries are currently participating in this initiative. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qeds.

• The Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics (QPSD) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of selected developing /emerging market countries. The main purpose of the PSD database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparison. The participation of countries in this centralized database is voluntary. Currently, 64 developing countries have agreed to participate and 40 provided data to the PSD database. In order to enhance the availability of the public debt database to the advanced economies The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited OECD countries and a few non OECD countries to participate in this initiative. Currently 27 advanced economies have provided data to the PSD database.The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support countries' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of public sector debt data. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qpsd.

• DECDG also published the International Debt Statistics 2013, which is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). IDS 2013 contains statistical tables for 128 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups. To find-out more, go to http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/international-debt-statistics.

Foreign Trade Statistics

Ongoing work

• The web-basedWorld Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration and consultation with various International Organizations including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and World Trade Organization (WTO). This new software does not require installation and it is fully web-based. WITS gives you access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data:

• The United Nations COMTRADE database maintained by UNSD.

• The TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD.

• The IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

• The merchandise trade data is based on bilateral trade between every reporting and trading partner. Tariff and non-tariff data are from UNCTAD files. The system also provides tariff data from WTO's IDB and CTS databases. In addition, WITS contains simulation tools that are extremely useful for trade negotiations. Users can simulate the impact of tariff changes on trade flows. To access the new WITS, visit http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/.

• In addition to the software, the Bank launched two new trade visualizers. Users can view their data using bubble charts and the map visualizer. "Bubble charts" display data in four dimensions. In each chart, the size of the country circle represents a volume measure, such as population or GDP. The position of the bubbles is determined by the indicators selected for the horizontal and vertical axes. The visualizer can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeVisualizer/. The "map visualizer" animates the export and import trade data from the UNSD COMTRADE database by commodity and partner country from 1988-2008. It can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeMapVisualizer/DataVisualizer.html.

The Services Trade Restrictions Database

• The Services Trade Restrictions Database collects information on applied services trade policies across 103 countries, 18 services sectors (covering telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of service supply. It contains qualitative policy information as well as a preliminary quantification of applied measures' restrictiveness. To access the database, see http://iresearch.worldbank.org/servicetrade/. For more information, visit the Open Data Catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/services-trade-restrictions.

2.7 Prices (World Bank)

International Comparison Programme

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

Gross National Income

Ongoing work

Atlas GNI per Capital

• The World Bank estimates dollar converted gross national income (GNI) per capita for all borrowing member countries, as well as most other economies.

• Per capita GNI for a country in local currency terms is converted into U.S. dollars by applying the Atlas conversion factor. The Atlas conversion factor is the simple arithmetic average of the current exchange rate and the exchange rates in the previous two years adjusted for the ratio of domestic to international inflation. The change in the GDP-deflator is used as a measure of domestic inflation, and the change in the SDR-deflator to represent international inflation. The SDR-deflator is compiled as a weighted average of the EURO-area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan's GDP-deflators.

• The purpose of applying the Atlas conversion factor is to lessen the effect of fluctuations and abrupt changes in the exchange rate, which can be heavily affected by capital flows. Thus, income measures converted using the Atlas conversion factor tend to be more stable over time, and changes in income rankings are more likely to reflect changes in relative economic performance than exchange rate fluctuations.

National Accounts

• The Bank continues its collaboration with the UN, IMF, OECD, and EUROSTAT through the Inter-Secretariat working group on national accounts (ISWGNA). The World Bank supports the implementation of the 2008 SNA in developing countries through activities of its regular work program of statistical capacity building, as well as through the ICP Program. The World Bank is preparing two handbooks complimenting the 2008 SNA aimed specifically at supporting national accountants in small developing countries. The first of these is the 2008 SNA - Concepts in Brief, and the second an accompanying implementation guide, the 2008 SNA - Implementation in Brief. The World Bank has also developed an e-learning course on National Accounts, which will is provided free of charge on the web.

2.3 Business statistics (World Bank)

Business statistics

Doing Business

• The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 185 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. Topics include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. See the Doing Business website: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ or from the Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database.

Enterprise Surveys

• An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. More detailed information about the Enterprise Surveys can be found on the Methodology page. See the Enterprise survey website: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI)

• The PPI Project Database has data on more than 6,000 infrastructure projects in 139 low- and middle-income countries. The database is the leading source of PPI trends in the developing world, covering projects in the energy, telecommunications, transport, and water and sewerage. See the PPI database: http://ppi.worldbank.org/.

Gross National Income

Ongoing work

Atlas GNI per Capital

• The World Bank estimates dollar converted gross national income (GNI) per capita for all borrowing member countries, as well as most other economies.

• Per capita GNI for a country in local currency terms is converted into U.S. dollars by applying the Atlas conversion factor. The Atlas conversion factor is the simple arithmetic average of the current exchange rate and the exchange rates in the previous two years adjusted for the ratio of domestic to international inflation. The change in the GDP-deflator is used as a measure of domestic inflation, and the change in the SDR-deflator to represent international inflation. The SDR-deflator is compiled as a weighted average of the EURO-area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan's GDP-deflators.

• The purpose of applying the Atlas conversion factor is to lessen the effect of fluctuations and abrupt changes in the exchange rate, which can be heavily affected by capital flows. Thus, income measures converted using the Atlas conversion factor tend to be more stable over time, and changes in income rankings are more likely to reflect changes in relative economic performance than exchange rate fluctuations.

National Accounts

• The Bank continues its collaboration with the UN, IMF, OECD, and EUROSTAT through the Inter-Secretariat working group on national accounts (ISWGNA). The World Bank supports the implementation of the 2008 SNA in developing countries through activities of its regular work program of statistical capacity building, as well as through the ICP Program. The World Bank is preparing two handbooks complimenting the 2008 SNA aimed specifically at supporting national accountants in small developing countries. The first of these is the 2008 SNA - Concepts in Brief, and the second an accompanying implementation guide, the 2008 SNA - Implementation in Brief. The World Bank has also developed an e-learning course on National Accounts, which will is provided free of charge on the web.2.3 Business statistics (World Bank)

Business statistics

Doing Business

• The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 185 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. Topics include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. See the Doing Business website: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ or from the Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database.

Enterprise Surveys

• An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. More detailed information about the Enterprise Surveys can be found on the Methodology page. See the Enterprise survey website: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI)

• The PPI Project Database has data on more than 6,000 infrastructure projects in 139 low- and middle-income countries. The database is the leading source of PPI trends in the developing world, covering projects in the energy, telecommunications, transport, and water and sewerage. See the PPI database: http://ppi.worldbank.org/.2.4 Sectoral statistics (World Bank)2.4.6 Banking, insurance, financial statistics (World Bank)

Financial Statistics

• The World Bank is involved in the effort to establish standards among international organizations relevant to Financial Statistics, through its active participation in the Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics. The Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics is one of the interagency task forces endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission to co-ordinate work among the participating agencies to improve the quality, transparency, timeliness and availability of data on external debt and international reserve assets. The Task Force is chaired by the IMF and includes representatives from the BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, OECD, UN, and the World Bank which have collaborated to produce these data.

• The World Bank's Financial Sector has published a comprehensive database of national Financial Sector Development Indicators including key data on banking, equity markets, and bond markets.

• The Global Financial Inclusion Database provides 506 country-level indicators of financial inclusion summarized for all adults and disaggregated by key demographic characteristics—gender, age, education, income, and rural or urban residence. Covering 148 economies, the indicators of financial inclusion measure how people save, borrow, make payments and manage risk. See Open Data catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/financial_inclusion or access Global FINDEX at globalfindex@worldbank.org

2.6 International trade and balance of payments (World Bank)

External Debt Statistics

• The World Bank's Debt Reporting System (DRS) requires every member country, which has received either an IBRD loan or an IDA credit to provide information on its external debt. The borrowing countries are required to report their long-term external debt on the following forms:

• Form 1 - Description of Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed which consists of information on each loan characteristics, such as commitment date, amount of loan commitment, loan purpose, interest rate, and terms and conditions of payments.

• Form 1A - Schedule of Drawings and Principal and Interest Payments for Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed, purpose of which is to enable the Bank to make projections of future payments of principal and interest for those loans that have irregular patterns of repayments.

• Form 2 - Individual External Public Debts and Private Debts Publicly Guaranteed: Current Status and Transactions During Period. This form contains loan-by-loan information on debt stocks and debt flows during the reporting period.

• The World Bank has been working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat and the UNCTAD to improve the data collection across the globe.

• The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources on a quarterly basis. The creditor/market data are complemented in JEDH using national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Database. National data has been extended to include not only SDDS/QEDS countries, but also GDDS/QEDS countries. The JEDH uses Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), which applies technological innovation to the context and content of information being exchanged with the aim of generating efficiencies through the convergence of data flows into a common framework. The Bank is also working in collaboration with the IMF and other partners to improve statistics on remittance flows to developing countries. The system is accessible from: http://www.jedh.org.

• The Quarterly External Debt (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed external debt data of countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Sixty eight SDDS countries (68) and forty two (42)GDDS countries are currently participating in this initiative. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qeds.

• The Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics (QPSD) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of selected developing /emerging market countries. The main purpose of the PSD database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparison. The participation of countries in this centralized database is voluntary. Currently, 64 developing countries have agreed to participate and 40 provided data to the PSD database. In order to enhance the availability of the public debt database to the advanced economies The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited OECD countries and a few non OECD countries to participate in this initiative. Currently 27 advanced economies have provided data to the PSD database.The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support countries' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of public sector debt data. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qpsd.

• DECDG also published the International Debt Statistics 2013, which is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). IDS 2013 contains statistical tables for 128 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups. To find-out more, go to http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/international-debt-statistics.

Foreign Trade Statistics

Ongoing work

• The web-basedWorld Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration and consultation with various International Organizations including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and World Trade Organization (WTO). This new software does not require installation and it is fully web-based. WITS gives you access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data:

• The United Nations COMTRADE database maintained by UNSD.

• The TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD.

• The IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

• The merchandise trade data is based on bilateral trade between every reporting and trading partner. Tariff and non-tariff data are from UNCTAD files. The system also provides tariff data from WTO's IDB and CTS databases. In addition, WITS contains simulation tools that are extremely useful for trade negotiations. Users can simulate the impact of tariff changes on trade flows. To access the new WITS, visit http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/.

• In addition to the software, the Bank launched two new trade visualizers. Users can view their data using bubble charts and the map visualizer. "Bubble charts" display data in four dimensions. In each chart, the size of the country circle represents a volume measure, such as population or GDP. The position of the bubbles is determined by the indicators selected for the horizontal and vertical axes. The visualizer can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeVisualizer/. The "map visualizer" animates the export and import trade data from the UNSD COMTRADE database by commodity and partner country from 1988-2008. It can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeMapVisualizer/DataVisualizer.html.

The Services Trade Restrictions Database

• The Services Trade Restrictions Database collects information on applied services trade policies across 103 countries, 18 services sectors (covering telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of service supply. It contains qualitative policy information as well as a preliminary quantification of applied measures' restrictiveness. To access the database, see http://iresearch.worldbank.org/servicetrade/. For more information, visit the Open Data Catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/services-trade-restrictions.2.7 Prices (World Bank)

International Comparison Programme

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

External Debt Statistics

• The World Bank's Debt Reporting System (DRS) requires every member country, which has received either an IBRD loan or an IDA credit to provide information on its external debt. The borrowing countries are required to report their long-term external debt on the following forms:

• Form 1 - Description of Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed which consists of information on each loan characteristics, such as commitment date, amount of loan commitment, loan purpose, interest rate, and terms and conditions of payments.

• Form 1A - Schedule of Drawings and Principal and Interest Payments for Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed, purpose of which is to enable the Bank to make projections of future payments of principal and interest for those loans that have irregular patterns of repayments.

• Form 2 - Individual External Public Debts and Private Debts Publicly Guaranteed: Current Status and Transactions During Period. This form contains loan-by-loan information on debt stocks and debt flows during the reporting period.

• The World Bank has been working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat and the UNCTAD to improve the data collection across the globe.

• The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources on a quarterly basis. The creditor/market data are complemented in JEDH using national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Database. National data has been extended to include not only SDDS/QEDS countries, but also GDDS/QEDS countries. The JEDH uses Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), which applies technological innovation to the context and content of information being exchanged with the aim of generating efficiencies through the convergence of data flows into a common framework. The Bank is also working in collaboration with the IMF and other partners to improve statistics on remittance flows to developing countries. The system is accessible from: http://www.jedh.org.

• The Quarterly External Debt (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed external debt data of countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Sixty eight SDDS countries (68) and forty two (42)GDDS countries are currently participating in this initiative. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qeds.

• The Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics (QPSD) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of selected developing /emerging market countries. The main purpose of the PSD database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparison. The participation of countries in this centralized database is voluntary. Currently, 64 developing countries have agreed to participate and 40 provided data to the PSD database. In order to enhance the availability of the public debt database to the advanced economies The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited OECD countries and a few non OECD countries to participate in this initiative. Currently 27 advanced economies have provided data to the PSD database.The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support countries' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of public sector debt data. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qpsd.

• DECDG also published the International Debt Statistics 2013, which is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). IDS 2013 contains statistical tables for 128 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups. To find-out more, go to http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/international-debt-statistics.

Foreign Trade Statistics

Ongoing work

• The web-basedWorld Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration and consultation with various International Organizations including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and World Trade Organization (WTO). This new software does not require installation and it is fully web-based. WITS gives you access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data:

• The United Nations COMTRADE database maintained by UNSD.

• The TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD.

• The IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

• The merchandise trade data is based on bilateral trade between every reporting and trading partner. Tariff and non-tariff data are from UNCTAD files. The system also provides tariff data from WTO's IDB and CTS databases. In addition, WITS contains simulation tools that are extremely useful for trade negotiations. Users can simulate the impact of tariff changes on trade flows. To access the new WITS, visit http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/.

• In addition to the software, the Bank launched two new trade visualizers. Users can view their data using bubble charts and the map visualizer. "Bubble charts" display data in four dimensions. In each chart, the size of the country circle represents a volume measure, such as population or GDP. The position of the bubbles is determined by the indicators selected for the horizontal and vertical axes. The visualizer can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeVisualizer/. The "map visualizer" animates the export and import trade data from the UNSD COMTRADE database by commodity and partner country from 1988-2008. It can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeMapVisualizer/DataVisualizer.html.

The Services Trade Restrictions Database

• The Services Trade Restrictions Database collects information on applied services trade policies across 103 countries, 18 services sectors (covering telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of service supply. It contains qualitative policy information as well as a preliminary quantification of applied measures' restrictiveness. To access the database, see http://iresearch.worldbank.org/servicetrade/. For more information, visit the Open Data Catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/services-trade-restrictions.

2.7 Prices (World Bank)

International Comparison Programme

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

Gross National Income

Ongoing work

Atlas GNI per Capital

• The World Bank estimates dollar converted gross national income (GNI) per capita for all borrowing member countries, as well as most other economies.

• Per capita GNI for a country in local currency terms is converted into U.S. dollars by applying the Atlas conversion factor. The Atlas conversion factor is the simple arithmetic average of the current exchange rate and the exchange rates in the previous two years adjusted for the ratio of domestic to international inflation. The change in the GDP-deflator is used as a measure of domestic inflation, and the change in the SDR-deflator to represent international inflation. The SDR-deflator is compiled as a weighted average of the EURO-area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan's GDP-deflators.

• The purpose of applying the Atlas conversion factor is to lessen the effect of fluctuations and abrupt changes in the exchange rate, which can be heavily affected by capital flows. Thus, income measures converted using the Atlas conversion factor tend to be more stable over time, and changes in income rankings are more likely to reflect changes in relative economic performance than exchange rate fluctuations.

National Accounts

• The Bank continues its collaboration with the UN, IMF, OECD, and EUROSTAT through the Inter-Secretariat working group on national accounts (ISWGNA). The World Bank supports the implementation of the 2008 SNA in developing countries through activities of its regular work program of statistical capacity building, as well as through the ICP Program. The World Bank is preparing two handbooks complimenting the 2008 SNA aimed specifically at supporting national accountants in small developing countries. The first of these is the 2008 SNA - Concepts in Brief, and the second an accompanying implementation guide, the 2008 SNA - Implementation in Brief. The World Bank has also developed an e-learning course on National Accounts, which will is provided free of charge on the web.

2.3 Business statistics (World Bank)

Business statistics

Doing Business

• The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 185 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. Topics include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. See the Doing Business website: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ or from the Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database.

Enterprise Surveys

• An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. More detailed information about the Enterprise Surveys can be found on the Methodology page. See the Enterprise survey website: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI)

• The PPI Project Database has data on more than 6,000 infrastructure projects in 139 low- and middle-income countries. The database is the leading source of PPI trends in the developing world, covering projects in the energy, telecommunications, transport, and water and sewerage. See the PPI database: http://ppi.worldbank.org/.

2.4 Sectoral statistics (World Bank)3.1 Environment (World Bank)

Environmental Indicators

• The 2013 edition of the World Development Indicators (WDI), the annual World Bank statistical flagship publication, included an updated and expanded set of 18 tables on environmental indicators covering some 150 countries. Its accompanying CD-ROM included time series data for more than 200 countries. In addition to the print edition, these data series are also available on the WDI Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do), as well as the Open Data website and APIs (http://data.worldbank.org/) under the following four topics; Agriculture & Rural Development; Climate Change; Energy & Mining; and Environment. In addition, the recently launched Climate Change Knowledge Portal (http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change) covers a wide array of information and data at the country and regional levels related to this subject. To find-out more about the Climate Change Portal. See http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A section of the environmental database is now available electronically on the World Bank's Environment Department website. The database includes, among others, the ECE countries and it is annually updated from various sources inside and outside the World Bank. Go to http://www.worldbank.org/environment and select Data & Statistics from the left navigation bar.

• The World Bank works with the UN Statistics Division in this area and continues to support initiatives in the field of environmental Work in this area has been bolstered by the development of accompanying indicators of environmental change including estimation of Adjusted Net Savings (genuine savings) and new estimates of the natural resources rents for more than 140 countries. These estimates are being published in the World Development Indicators and are also available in open data websites.

Priority objectives

• Development of core environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the international development goals adopted by the World Bank, United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

• Publication of environmental indicators through the World Development Indicators and the Environment Department website.

• Updated on a yearly basis. New products to be showcased in the website include environment at-a- glance fact sheets by country.

• The World Bank will continue to provide expertise on green accounting and the measurement of sustainable development through its participation in activities with UNECE and other international groups.3.2 Regional and small area statistics (World Bank)

Sub-national Statistics

New Activities

• The Development Data Group of the World Bank is involved in maintaining, documenting, and incorporating sub-national data into its databases. We will be augmenting the World Development Indicators CD-ROM product to support mapping and charting of sub-national data.

Statistics for Small States

• The Small States Supplement 2011 is a supplement to the World Development Indicators 2011 and presents data for developing member countries of the Small States Forum. This special supplement covers critical development factors within Small States. The data in this supplement covers 41 members of the Small States Forum excluding the high-income countries of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Malta, Qatar, and San Marino. See http://data.worldbank.org/news/small-states-supplement-2011 or the PDF file at http://data.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/small-states-2011.pdf.3.3 Multi-domain statistics and indicators (World Bank)Infrastructure Indicators

Ongoing work:

3.3.1 Living conditions, poverty and cross-cutting social issues

Poverty Statistics

• In keeping with its Open Data Initiative to make more of its information accessible to the general public, the World Bank has launched an innovative data portal where visitors can query and download national or regional poverty statistics, use Apps to view and map trends in poverty and inequality, and view trends over time. The new Poverty & Equity Data site at http://povertydata.worldbank.org offers visitors easily comparable statistics that is critical for anybody seeking to keep poverty reduction on the world's agenda.

• New estimates of global poverty were the first re-evaluation of the World Bank's "$1 a day" poverty line since 1999. The international poverty line has been recalibrated at $1.25 a day, using new data on purchasing power parities (PPPs), compiled by the International Comparison Program, and an expanded set of household income and expenditure surveys. New measurements of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines.

• The World Bank does an overall assessment every three years of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world, based on household surveys. The latest estimates covering the period of 1981-2008 were released on February 29, 2012. The latest estimates draw on over 850 household surveys for almost 130 developing countries (representing 90% of the population of the developing world), and the Purchasing Power Parity rates for 2005 from the International Comparison Program. All past estimates have been revised back to 1981 on a consistent basis. • The World Bank will continue its theoretical and practical work in the area of measuring and analysing income poverty, as well as efforts in developing tools to measure the many other dimensions of poverty. In the past few years the WB prepared a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Source Book, which is designed as a handbook for the 42 PRSP countries (9 of them are in the ECE region) in developing their strategy for poverty alleviation. A considerable part of the book is focused on the issues of data on poverty, poverty measurement, and poverty monitoring. The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development. They include:

• Information on household surveys: key features and general information on income/consumption surveys conducted recently. The information sheets indicate whether household survey data are available to the general public. Links to the data set are provided when they are available on the web.

• Poverty Assessment Summaries conducted by the World Bank since 1993.

• Participatory Poverty Assessments, which provide basic information on assessments conducted by the Bank and other institutions.

• PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. it allows one to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of their choosing. (http://go.worldbank.org/NT2A1XUWP0).

• Training of statisticians and policy makers on how to use household survey data for analysis and policy is and will continue to be provided by the World Bank Institute on a regional basis. Country specific training on analysis is carried out under several LSMS projects and under Poverty Assessments.

• The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development.

MDG Indicators

• In collaboration with other international agencies the World Bank is working to strengthen the system to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At the international level, efforts are continuing to improve poverty and education data and to promote greater coordination in the compilation and dissemination of data on the MDG indicators. At the national level, efforts are under way to strengthen the capacity of countries to report on progress towards the goals and to document the statistical methods and procedures used. The Bank maintains a web site on Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDGs grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations. See also: http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ andhttp://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/millennium-development-indicators

• The World Bank's eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals produced in collaboration with Office of the Publisher, Development Data Group and Harper Collins lets one visualize and map the indicators that measure progress toward the Goals, with clear explanations of each Goal and its related Targets as the context. When one selects an indicator, the eAtlas creates a world map keyed to that indicator, with country rankings and data in table or graph formats. One can pan or zoom to view different countries or regions, view the dynamic change in that map with a time series, compare two maps and sets of data, and do much more. To see the atlas, go to http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/mdg/en

• The Millennium Development Goals and the Road to 2010 booklet was produced to examine the progress made so far on MDG targets. The report can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ website.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A MDGs Interactive Dashboard will be launched in Spring 2013. The Dashboard will allow users to visualize progress to date, as well as progress that can be realistically expected given ongoing trends, of each country, region, subject group, and the developing world as a whole. The Dashboard will also allow users to compare countries and regions of their choice and select alternative rates of progress to visualize the progress towards targets under different scenarios. The MDGs Interactive Dashboard will help inform the development community about what country experiences may be important lessons for achieving the MDGs, and what can be done to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs.

3.3.6 Sustainable development

Sustainable Development

• The World Bank contributes to the Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development (WGSSD). This group aims to develop a guidance document on developing asset-based approaches to measuring sustainable development.

• The World Bank contributes to the update of the Indicators of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development Indicators taskforce. Indicators are now classified as core and non-core and provide methodology sheets and background information to support indicator efforts in countries.3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia (World Bank)

Compendia

• The Bank releases two annual publications both in hard copy and on CD-ROM, World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. The Atlas of Global Development is distributed in hard copy and electronic formats. Time-series data from these publications are available from the Bank's Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/.

2.6 International trade and balance of payments (World Bank)

External Debt Statistics

• The World Bank's Debt Reporting System (DRS) requires every member country, which has received either an IBRD loan or an IDA credit to provide information on its external debt. The borrowing countries are required to report their long-term external debt on the following forms:

• Form 1 - Description of Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed which consists of information on each loan characteristics, such as commitment date, amount of loan commitment, loan purpose, interest rate, and terms and conditions of payments.

• Form 1A - Schedule of Drawings and Principal and Interest Payments for Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed, purpose of which is to enable the Bank to make projections of future payments of principal and interest for those loans that have irregular patterns of repayments.

• Form 2 - Individual External Public Debts and Private Debts Publicly Guaranteed: Current Status and Transactions During Period. This form contains loan-by-loan information on debt stocks and debt flows during the reporting period.

• The World Bank has been working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat and the UNCTAD to improve the data collection across the globe.

• The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources on a quarterly basis. The creditor/market data are complemented in JEDH using national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Database. National data has been extended to include not only SDDS/QEDS countries, but also GDDS/QEDS countries. The JEDH uses Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), which applies technological innovation to the context and content of information being exchanged with the aim of generating efficiencies through the convergence of data flows into a common framework. The Bank is also working in collaboration with the IMF and other partners to improve statistics on remittance flows to developing countries. The system is accessible from: http://www.jedh.org.

• The Quarterly External Debt (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed external debt data of countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Sixty eight SDDS countries (68) and forty two (42)GDDS countries are currently participating in this initiative. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qeds.

• The Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics (QPSD) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of selected developing /emerging market countries. The main purpose of the PSD database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparison. The participation of countries in this centralized database is voluntary. Currently, 64 developing countries have agreed to participate and 40 provided data to the PSD database. In order to enhance the availability of the public debt database to the advanced economies The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited OECD countries and a few non OECD countries to participate in this initiative. Currently 27 advanced economies have provided data to the PSD database.The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support countries' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of public sector debt data. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qpsd.

• DECDG also published the International Debt Statistics 2013, which is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). IDS 2013 contains statistical tables for 128 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups. To find-out more, go to http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/international-debt-statistics.

Foreign Trade Statistics

Ongoing work

• The web-basedWorld Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration and consultation with various International Organizations including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and World Trade Organization (WTO). This new software does not require installation and it is fully web-based. WITS gives you access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data:

• The United Nations COMTRADE database maintained by UNSD.

• The TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD.

• The IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

• The merchandise trade data is based on bilateral trade between every reporting and trading partner. Tariff and non-tariff data are from UNCTAD files. The system also provides tariff data from WTO's IDB and CTS databases. In addition, WITS contains simulation tools that are extremely useful for trade negotiations. Users can simulate the impact of tariff changes on trade flows. To access the new WITS, visit http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/.

• In addition to the software, the Bank launched two new trade visualizers. Users can view their data using bubble charts and the map visualizer. "Bubble charts" display data in four dimensions. In each chart, the size of the country circle represents a volume measure, such as population or GDP. The position of the bubbles is determined by the indicators selected for the horizontal and vertical axes. The visualizer can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeVisualizer/. The "map visualizer" animates the export and import trade data from the UNSD COMTRADE database by commodity and partner country from 1988-2008. It can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeMapVisualizer/DataVisualizer.html.

The Services Trade Restrictions Database

• The Services Trade Restrictions Database collects information on applied services trade policies across 103 countries, 18 services sectors (covering telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of service supply. It contains qualitative policy information as well as a preliminary quantification of applied measures' restrictiveness. To access the database, see http://iresearch.worldbank.org/servicetrade/. For more information, visit the Open Data Catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/services-trade-restrictions.

2.7 Prices (World Bank)

International Comparison Programme

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

Gross National Income

Ongoing work

Atlas GNI per Capital

• The World Bank estimates dollar converted gross national income (GNI) per capita for all borrowing member countries, as well as most other economies.

• Per capita GNI for a country in local currency terms is converted into U.S. dollars by applying the Atlas conversion factor. The Atlas conversion factor is the simple arithmetic average of the current exchange rate and the exchange rates in the previous two years adjusted for the ratio of domestic to international inflation. The change in the GDP-deflator is used as a measure of domestic inflation, and the change in the SDR-deflator to represent international inflation. The SDR-deflator is compiled as a weighted average of the EURO-area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan's GDP-deflators.

• The purpose of applying the Atlas conversion factor is to lessen the effect of fluctuations and abrupt changes in the exchange rate, which can be heavily affected by capital flows. Thus, income measures converted using the Atlas conversion factor tend to be more stable over time, and changes in income rankings are more likely to reflect changes in relative economic performance than exchange rate fluctuations.

National Accounts

• The Bank continues its collaboration with the UN, IMF, OECD, and EUROSTAT through the Inter-Secretariat working group on national accounts (ISWGNA). The World Bank supports the implementation of the 2008 SNA in developing countries through activities of its regular work program of statistical capacity building, as well as through the ICP Program. The World Bank is preparing two handbooks complimenting the 2008 SNA aimed specifically at supporting national accountants in small developing countries. The first of these is the 2008 SNA - Concepts in Brief, and the second an accompanying implementation guide, the 2008 SNA - Implementation in Brief. The World Bank has also developed an e-learning course on National Accounts, which will is provided free of charge on the web.

2.3 Business statistics (World Bank)

Business statistics

Doing Business

• The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 185 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. Topics include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. See the Doing Business website: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ or from the Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database.

Enterprise Surveys

• An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. More detailed information about the Enterprise Surveys can be found on the Methodology page. See the Enterprise survey website: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI)

• The PPI Project Database has data on more than 6,000 infrastructure projects in 139 low- and middle-income countries. The database is the leading source of PPI trends in the developing world, covering projects in the energy, telecommunications, transport, and water and sewerage. See the PPI database: http://ppi.worldbank.org/.

2.4 Sectoral statistics (World Bank)4.1 Metadata (World Bank)

DDI

• Together with the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), the World Bank is advocating and supporting the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification (DDI Codebook) for the documentation and dissemination of microdata. In 2012, the data Group supported the development/upgrade of DDI-compliant software applications, including a DDI metadata editor and an open-source survey cataloguing tool (all available at www.ihsn.org). The software has been translated into French and Russian. These applications and related guidelines will be further developed in 2013.4.3 Data sources (World Bank)2.4.6 Banking, insurance, financial statistics (World Bank)

Financial Statistics

• The World Bank is involved in the effort to establish standards among international organizations relevant to Financial Statistics, through its active participation in the Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics. The Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics is one of the interagency task forces endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission to co-ordinate work among the participating agencies to improve the quality, transparency, timeliness and availability of data on external debt and international reserve assets. The Task Force is chaired by the IMF and includes representatives from the BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, OECD, UN, and the World Bank which have collaborated to produce these data.

• The World Bank's Financial Sector has published a comprehensive database of national Financial Sector Development Indicators including key data on banking, equity markets, and bond markets.

• The Global Financial Inclusion Database provides 506 country-level indicators of financial inclusion summarized for all adults and disaggregated by key demographic characteristics—gender, age, education, income, and rural or urban residence. Covering 148 economies, the indicators of financial inclusion measure how people save, borrow, make payments and manage risk. See Open Data catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/financial_inclusion or access Global FINDEX at globalfindex@worldbank.org

4.5 Dissemination, data warehousing (World Bank)

Dissemination

The Development Data Group of the World Bank uses the following systems for data retrieval and dissemination:

• As part of the World Bank's new open data initiative (ODI), the Bank launched a new website http://data.worldbank.org in April 2010 to provide free, open and easy access to over 8,000 indicators in four languages: English, Spanish, French Arabic and Chinese. Visitors to the site can easily find, download, manipulate, use, and re-use the data compiled by the World Bank, without restrictions. They can also take advantage of graph and mapping tools. Over the past year, more World Bank datasets, such as Climate Change, Projects and Operations, Finance and Microdata have been added to the data repositories that have joined the ODI. The site allows individuals, groups, and organizations to create applications, programs, visualizations, and other tools that will help monitor and measure progress of various development initiatives and projects. Additionally, the data can be used to create new and innovative solutions for international development, helping with the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty across the globe. One of the components of the new Open Data is the data retrieval system called the DataBank providing access to over 40 30 databases. Some of the links available from the DataBank on various topical databases include: - Gender at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=283; - Education at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=2&id=4&CNO=1159; - Health-Nutrition-Population HNPStats at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=311; - Etc.

• The Gateway initiative is envisioned as a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience http://www.developmentgateway.org/.

• As part of the World Bank's new Access to Information Policy and building on the success of the Open Data initiative the Mapping for Results Platform was by the World Bank Institute and AidData in partnership with various World Bank departments (AFTSD, LCSDE, DECDG, OPCS) to geo-reference and visualize the geographic location of World Bank financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level. See http://maps.worldbank.org/.

• The World Bank Microdata Library (http://microdata.worldbank.org) provides access to survey and census data and metadata. The number of surveys and censuses listed in this catalog is expected to grow significantly in 2012. . The Microdata Library will keep expanding in 2013.

• Data Visualizer is a tool creating animated charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users. Adding animation to this only increases its impact. To use this new tool, see http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/.

DataFinder apps

• The new version of the World Bank's DataFinder 3,0 is now available on three platforms - iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. This application is part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative to make development data more accessible and easier to use. This is an offline application and does not require a 3G or WiFi connection to the World Bank's Open Data website. Users can are presented with a pre-selected set of indicators for a country/country grouping or for a thematic topic (e.g. environment, gender, trade etc.). Data can be charted or viewed on an animated map. Users can also compare indicators for two countries. All tables, charts, maps can be shared via email or via social media software such Facebook and Twitter. the new DataFinder 3.0 has an Advanced Query Feature that allows users to create their own data tables and charts from 50 years of World Bank data on more than 1,100 global social and economic indicators for over 200 countries/economies and country groups - all of which can be used in presentations, projects, and shared via email. it also contains improved visualizations including a map with zoom-in features. Since the launch of the first DataFinder application, major improvements have been made, including the ability to switch between tables, lines and bar charts; view data in tabular forms; display charts with more than one country and more than one indicator; navigate forward/backward between countries and indicators, etc. will be downloadable in 2012 from Apple, Google and the Blackberry stores. For more information, see http://data.worldbank.org/apps

WDI DataFinder

• A full app gives access to all indicators from WDI database, which include topic such as the Economy, Environment, Gender, Health, Population, Infrastructure, Private Sector Development, Trade, etc. This app is available in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-datafinder/id349081196?mt=8

EdStats DataFinder

• The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s education statistics database, which includes over 2,000 indicators on topics such as enrollment, completion, learning outcomes, education expenditures, teaches, and pre-primary to tertiary education. App users can access education data by country, topic, or indicator, and view the resulting data in tables, charts, or maps that can be easily shared though email, Facebook, and Twitter. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-edstats-datafinder/id467566445?mt=8

Jobs DataFinder

• The app provides easy access to global development indicators on employments, human capital and skills, labor market institutions and the business environment. Its collection of development indicators is compiled from officially-recognized international sources and represents the most recent and accurate data on these topics. The data is shared through the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative and is supported by the Jobs Knowledge Platform. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-jobs-datafinder/id557102462?mt=8

Poverty and Inequality DataFinder

• This app provides quick access to the latest poverty and inequality indicators for more than 120 developing countries. Visualize trends in charts and maps, explore the indicators in tables, and share them with friends and colleagues through email and social media. The Poverty Datafinder is useful to students, professors, researchers, development practitioners, and anyone looking to learn more about poverty and inequality in the developing world. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-poverty-inequality/id557157064?mt=8

Health Stats

• This app contains the most current Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) data for over 250 indicators and more than 200 countries and regional/income groups. The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s HNP statistics database, which includes topics such as health, HIV/AIDS, immunization, infectious diseases, medical resources and usage, nutrition, population dynamics, reproductive health, cause of death, non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation, with background information in poverty, labor force, economy and education. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-hnpstats-datafinder/id555291286?mt=8

New Data Portals/Websites

• The World Bank has developed new websites that are collections of freely available data and tools. They provide data dashboards on various topics and contain tables, charts, and maps as well as access to all the underlying data through our latest data visualization and sharing application, DataBank.

• Together with the IMF, the World Bank will continue to work on the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) which provides guidelines to the countries in the dissemination of economic, financial and socio-demographic data to the public and establishes a broad framework for countries seeking improvements in their statistical systems. The World Bank has developed guidelines for the preparation of metadata covering the following areas: population, education, health, poverty assessment and monitoring. The World Bank, as part of phase one of this project, in collaboration with the IMF, has been participating in regional seminars and in preparation of the GDDS metadata for participating countries, as well as providing technical support from headquarters or in the field to staff of member countries participating in the GDDS.

• For WITS and Trade visualizers, see section 2.6.

2.6 International trade and balance of payments (World Bank)

External Debt Statistics

• The World Bank's Debt Reporting System (DRS) requires every member country, which has received either an IBRD loan or an IDA credit to provide information on its external debt. The borrowing countries are required to report their long-term external debt on the following forms:

• Form 1 - Description of Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed which consists of information on each loan characteristics, such as commitment date, amount of loan commitment, loan purpose, interest rate, and terms and conditions of payments.

• Form 1A - Schedule of Drawings and Principal and Interest Payments for Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed, purpose of which is to enable the Bank to make projections of future payments of principal and interest for those loans that have irregular patterns of repayments.

• Form 2 - Individual External Public Debts and Private Debts Publicly Guaranteed: Current Status and Transactions During Period. This form contains loan-by-loan information on debt stocks and debt flows during the reporting period.

• The World Bank has been working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat and the UNCTAD to improve the data collection across the globe.

• The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources on a quarterly basis. The creditor/market data are complemented in JEDH using national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Database. National data has been extended to include not only SDDS/QEDS countries, but also GDDS/QEDS countries. The JEDH uses Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), which applies technological innovation to the context and content of information being exchanged with the aim of generating efficiencies through the convergence of data flows into a common framework. The Bank is also working in collaboration with the IMF and other partners to improve statistics on remittance flows to developing countries. The system is accessible from: http://www.jedh.org.

• The Quarterly External Debt (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed external debt data of countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Sixty eight SDDS countries (68) and forty two (42)GDDS countries are currently participating in this initiative. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qeds.

• The Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics (QPSD) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of selected developing /emerging market countries. The main purpose of the PSD database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparison. The participation of countries in this centralized database is voluntary. Currently, 64 developing countries have agreed to participate and 40 provided data to the PSD database. In order to enhance the availability of the public debt database to the advanced economies The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited OECD countries and a few non OECD countries to participate in this initiative. Currently 27 advanced economies have provided data to the PSD database.The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support countries' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of public sector debt data. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qpsd.

• DECDG also published the International Debt Statistics 2013, which is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). IDS 2013 contains statistical tables for 128 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups. To find-out more, go to http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/international-debt-statistics.

Foreign Trade Statistics

Ongoing work

• The web-basedWorld Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration and consultation with various International Organizations including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and World Trade Organization (WTO). This new software does not require installation and it is fully web-based. WITS gives you access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data:

• The United Nations COMTRADE database maintained by UNSD.

• The TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD.

• The IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

• The merchandise trade data is based on bilateral trade between every reporting and trading partner. Tariff and non-tariff data are from UNCTAD files. The system also provides tariff data from WTO's IDB and CTS databases. In addition, WITS contains simulation tools that are extremely useful for trade negotiations. Users can simulate the impact of tariff changes on trade flows. To access the new WITS, visit http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/.

• In addition to the software, the Bank launched two new trade visualizers. Users can view their data using bubble charts and the map visualizer. "Bubble charts" display data in four dimensions. In each chart, the size of the country circle represents a volume measure, such as population or GDP. The position of the bubbles is determined by the indicators selected for the horizontal and vertical axes. The visualizer can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeVisualizer/. The "map visualizer" animates the export and import trade data from the UNSD COMTRADE database by commodity and partner country from 1988-2008. It can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeMapVisualizer/DataVisualizer.html.

The Services Trade Restrictions Database

• The Services Trade Restrictions Database collects information on applied services trade policies across 103 countries, 18 services sectors (covering telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of service supply. It contains qualitative policy information as well as a preliminary quantification of applied measures' restrictiveness. To access the database, see http://iresearch.worldbank.org/servicetrade/. For more information, visit the Open Data Catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/services-trade-restrictions.

2.7 Prices (World Bank)

International Comparison Programme

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

Gross National Income

Ongoing work

Atlas GNI per Capital

• The World Bank estimates dollar converted gross national income (GNI) per capita for all borrowing member countries, as well as most other economies.

• Per capita GNI for a country in local currency terms is converted into U.S. dollars by applying the Atlas conversion factor. The Atlas conversion factor is the simple arithmetic average of the current exchange rate and the exchange rates in the previous two years adjusted for the ratio of domestic to international inflation. The change in the GDP-deflator is used as a measure of domestic inflation, and the change in the SDR-deflator to represent international inflation. The SDR-deflator is compiled as a weighted average of the EURO-area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan's GDP-deflators.

• The purpose of applying the Atlas conversion factor is to lessen the effect of fluctuations and abrupt changes in the exchange rate, which can be heavily affected by capital flows. Thus, income measures converted using the Atlas conversion factor tend to be more stable over time, and changes in income rankings are more likely to reflect changes in relative economic performance than exchange rate fluctuations.

National Accounts

• The Bank continues its collaboration with the UN, IMF, OECD, and EUROSTAT through the Inter-Secretariat working group on national accounts (ISWGNA). The World Bank supports the implementation of the 2008 SNA in developing countries through activities of its regular work program of statistical capacity building, as well as through the ICP Program. The World Bank is preparing two handbooks complimenting the 2008 SNA aimed specifically at supporting national accountants in small developing countries. The first of these is the 2008 SNA - Concepts in Brief, and the second an accompanying implementation guide, the 2008 SNA - Implementation in Brief. The World Bank has also developed an e-learning course on National Accounts, which will is provided free of charge on the web.

2.3 Business statistics (World Bank)

Business statistics

Doing Business

• The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 185 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. Topics include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. See the Doing Business website: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ or from the Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database.

Enterprise Surveys

• An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. More detailed information about the Enterprise Surveys can be found on the Methodology page. See the Enterprise survey website: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI)

• The PPI Project Database has data on more than 6,000 infrastructure projects in 139 low- and middle-income countries. The database is the leading source of PPI trends in the developing world, covering projects in the energy, telecommunications, transport, and water and sewerage. See the PPI database: http://ppi.worldbank.org/.

Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)

• The World Bank has been working with the IMF on the Socio-demographic and Poverty modules of the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). The framework provides countries with a flexible structure for the qualitative assessment of various aspects of the statistical environment and infrastructure in which the data are collected, processed, and disseminated. It also identifies areas requiring technical assistance. The income poverty and education modules have been completed. Modules for health and population are under development.5.5 Technological resources (including standards for electronic data exchange and data sharing) (World Bank)

Statistical Information Collection and Processing

• The World Bank gathers macroeconomic data and projections at least once a year from its country teams in a process known as the Unified Survey. These data and projections are used for planning and evaluating Bank operations. They underlie work on creditworthiness and risk assessment and they are an important part of the Bank's external publications such as the World Development Indicators, the country and regional At-a-Glance tables, and Global Development Finance. These data are collected in a standardized way using the World Bank's country database system known as the Live Database (LDB). The LDB is an Excel based system which standardizes the management of macroeconomic information by organizing information into separate sheets by topic and utilizing indicator codes, common layouts, and a variety of formatting, calculation, and reporting tools.

• The Development Data Platform (DDP), a web-based statistical data collection and dissemination system has integrated and streamlined time-series data management operations at the Bank, and has established a comprehensive platform to support the statistical data collection and dissemination functions of the Bank. Also, the software can be provided to countries to further the goal of statistical capacity building in these countries. The software developed in this project may be installed in these countries.

• The Data Collection System (DCS), is an internal repository for time series data and metadata collection, validation, processing including aggregation to various regional and income based groupings. It is used internally for a wide variety of socio-economic, financial and other topical indicators. The DCS provides data to the DDP (described above). As a platform, DCS is also provided to other organizations which have similar needs for statistical time series data collection and processing.

• The system has also incorporated micro data from household surveys allowing cross-country comparisons on key indicators by welfare status.

SDMX

• The BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank have set up a partnership to focus on establishing web-based standards for more efficient exchange and sharing of statistical information and metadata, which is called SDMX. As part of this effort the Bank is currently chairing the Sponsor group and actively participating in the SDMX Secretariat activities. The Bank is also a part of the newly formed SDMX Technical working group. In the SDMX Global Conference hosted jointly by the Bank and IMF much headway was made, and as a follow up to the conference, a new SDMX Action plan was drafted creating a roadmap for SDMX until 2015. The Bank has now capability to accept data in SDMX format and also provides download of the popular WDI database in SDMX-ML format. The Bank also has a SDMX Version 2.1 compatible REST based API for users to query the WDI data. See http://sdmx.org/5.7 Technical cooperation and capacity building programmes (World Bank)

Statistical Capacity Building

Ongoing work

•The World Bank promotes statistical capacity building (SCB) mainly through financial instruments, advisory services, knowledge products, and partnerships. Our activities are centred around the implementation of the global action plans for statistics, the Marrakech Action Plans for Statistics (MAPS) and the more recent Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS. Main financial instruments are loans and grants. Lending projects are mostly long term and comprehensive in coverage. The projects typically aim at improved economic and social information for policy making and poverty reduction by strengthening planning, statistical legislations, infrastructure, human resources, data collection, processing, analyzing, archiving, and dissemination. A multi-country lending program, Statistical Capacity Building Program (STATCAP), became operational in 2004 to make investments in statistical development easier and more effective. It is designed to be simple to initiate, plan and operate.

• A $32 million loan under STATCAP for a statistical capacity building program in Ukraine was approved by the Bank's Executive Board in 2004, and will close by the end of 2012. The loan included finance for organizational and management reform, development of statistical infrastructure, modernization of computing infrastructure, technical assistance in various areas, and use of economic data in analysis and forecasting.

• In the Russian Federation as a part of the STATCAP facility a new $50 million Project for Development of the State Statistical System (STASYS 2) became effective in April 2008. The project is under implementation as a follow up to the STASYS project which was completed in December 2006. For the STASYS 2 Project, the World Bank finances 20% of the above amount to i) enforce further modernization of statistics methodology in compliance with the international standards; ii) strengthen development of modern design and technology for statistical data collection, processing, and dissemination; iii) ensure enhancement of social statistics, and iv) support human resource development in the statistical system. The World Bank and the Government of Russia is also in discussion regarding a large scale Reimbursable TA program.

• A $20 million loan under the STATCAP umbrella for Kazakhstan was approved by the World Bank in March 2011. The main objective of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the national statistical system to provide relevant, timely and reliable data in line with internationally accepted methodology and best practices. The project will upgrade the conceptual, methodological and analytical skills of the Kazakh Agency on Statistics of Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK) and other data producer and user agencies of the country. The loan agreement was signed in August 2011 and ratified by the Kazakh Parliament in December 2011. The project is currently under implementation.

• The World Bank manages a multi-donor Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB which aims to strengthen the capacity of statistical systems in developing countries. It supports: i) NSDS projects assisting the preparation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS); and ii) Statistical capacity improvement projects aiming at strengthening the capacity in key priority areas. TFSCB also funds participation of developing country representatives in meetings, seminars and workshops. TFSCB has financed below projects in the region that are under implementation.

• UNECE: Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries 2009-2011 $355,000.

• Russian Federation/CIS: The Need to Develop an Integrated System of Household Surveys to Collect Data on International Migration in the CIS States $320,000.

• A new Multi Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries has recently been established, with Russian Federation providing funding. ECASTAT’s overall objective is to address the capacity and financial constraints of the statistical systems of the countries in the region. ECASTAT will support the long-term process of improving development outcomes by strengthening the production of reliable and relevant data on a timely basis for evidence-based decision making at all levels of government in Eastern Europe and the CIS region. The trust fund will provide funding for regional as well as country specific projects, with a preference for low and lower-middle income countries. ECASTAT is expecting to allocate its first grants in early spring 2013.

• The World Bank maintains a web site on Statistical Capacity Building which provides information on the financial instruments, including STATCAP and TFSCB, advisory services, databases, and reference materials available in support of statistical capacity building. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/statcap.

• The World Bank has developed in the last three years the Virtual Statistical System which is an online resource for statisticians and users of statistics with information about how to manage statistical systems and how to make official statistics. The website includes a knowledge base and the VSS e-learning website called Modules for Strengthening Statistics. The site can be found at (www.virtualstatisticalsystem.org and www.statsys.org). The design of the site was an effort of working in partnership with several other international organizations and developed and developing countries.

• The Country Statistical Information Database provides information on national statistical systems useful for assessing statistical capacity and monitoring progress in statistical capacity building in developing countries. The database contains information encompassing various aspects of national statistical systems and operations, such as statistical law, national statistical strategy, statistical practice, censuses and surveys, national statistical agencies and publications, , and World Bank statistical projects. It also includes a country-level composite statistical capacity indicator based on evaluation of countries against a set of criteria in the areas of statistical practice, data collection and indicator availability, consistent with international recommendations. In addition, the database allows for cross-country comparisons of selected indicators. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/csid.html.

• The World Bank provides funding to PARIS21 from its development Grant Facility for the implementation of the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), jointly implemented with the World Bank Data Group. The ADP provides support to countries in the areas of microdata documentation, dissemination and preservation. The Russian Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was introduced to the software and practices promoted by the ADP.

• A web-based tool called the "Bulletin Board on Statistical Capacity (BBSC)" is available on the World Bank website. The tool aims to help strengthen the capacity of countries, especially IDA countries, to compile and use statistics with an overall aim of supporting the management of development results. Specifically, the BBSC: i) presents key information on national statistical systems collected from national and international sources, including planning, funding, human resources, census and surveys; ii) assesses countries' statistical capacity in key areas including institutional framework, statistical methodology, source data, data periodicity and timeliness through the use of a composite indicator, checklists, maps and charts; and iii) allows users to provide feedback and updates easily and quickly with interactive features. The BBSC is available online at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/bbsc.

Open Government

"The World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010, provides free, open and easy access to development data, and challenges the global community to use the data to create new solutions to reduce poverty. The World Bank is also responding to developing countries' demand for support to implement vibrant and sustainable open data initiatives. The Bank provides technical assistance and training tools for open data that can be used at the city, sector and national levels (see http://data.worldbank.org/open-government-data-toolkit). The Bank is engaged actively in countries such as Moldova, and providing on-demand advice to many other developing countries. By responding to these client demands, the World Bank Group promotes transparency, more efficient public service delivery, and innovation and economic growth. For instance, to enhance budget transparency and accountability, through instruments like BOOST the Bank is simultaneously helping authorities to better analyze, visualize and geo-map government spending for decision-making and making fiscal data more accessible to the public. Many other data driven applications have been created -and are publically available- as a result of Bank sponsored competitions (apps for development, apps for climate, apps for water and similar). The Bank’s openness agenda continues to gain momentum, eliminating barriers so that all stakeholders participate, collaborate, and innovate in democratizing development."

2.6 International trade and balance of payments (World Bank)

External Debt Statistics

• The World Bank's Debt Reporting System (DRS) requires every member country, which has received either an IBRD loan or an IDA credit to provide information on its external debt. The borrowing countries are required to report their long-term external debt on the following forms:

• Form 1 - Description of Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed which consists of information on each loan characteristics, such as commitment date, amount of loan commitment, loan purpose, interest rate, and terms and conditions of payments.

• Form 1A - Schedule of Drawings and Principal and Interest Payments for Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed, purpose of which is to enable the Bank to make projections of future payments of principal and interest for those loans that have irregular patterns of repayments.

• Form 2 - Individual External Public Debts and Private Debts Publicly Guaranteed: Current Status and Transactions During Period. This form contains loan-by-loan information on debt stocks and debt flows during the reporting period.

• The World Bank has been working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat and the UNCTAD to improve the data collection across the globe.

• The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources on a quarterly basis. The creditor/market data are complemented in JEDH using national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Database. National data has been extended to include not only SDDS/QEDS countries, but also GDDS/QEDS countries. The JEDH uses Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), which applies technological innovation to the context and content of information being exchanged with the aim of generating efficiencies through the convergence of data flows into a common framework. The Bank is also working in collaboration with the IMF and other partners to improve statistics on remittance flows to developing countries. The system is accessible from: http://www.jedh.org.

• The Quarterly External Debt (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed external debt data of countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Sixty eight SDDS countries (68) and forty two (42)GDDS countries are currently participating in this initiative. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qeds.

• The Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics (QPSD) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of selected developing /emerging market countries. The main purpose of the PSD database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparison. The participation of countries in this centralized database is voluntary. Currently, 64 developing countries have agreed to participate and 40 provided data to the PSD database. In order to enhance the availability of the public debt database to the advanced economies The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited OECD countries and a few non OECD countries to participate in this initiative. Currently 27 advanced economies have provided data to the PSD database.The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support countries' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of public sector debt data. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qpsd.

• DECDG also published the International Debt Statistics 2013, which is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). IDS 2013 contains statistical tables for 128 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups. To find-out more, go to http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/international-debt-statistics.

Foreign Trade Statistics

Ongoing work

• The web-basedWorld Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration and consultation with various International Organizations including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and World Trade Organization (WTO). This new software does not require installation and it is fully web-based. WITS gives you access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data:

• The United Nations COMTRADE database maintained by UNSD.

• The TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD.

• The IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

• The merchandise trade data is based on bilateral trade between every reporting and trading partner. Tariff and non-tariff data are from UNCTAD files. The system also provides tariff data from WTO's IDB and CTS databases. In addition, WITS contains simulation tools that are extremely useful for trade negotiations. Users can simulate the impact of tariff changes on trade flows. To access the new WITS, visit http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/.

• In addition to the software, the Bank launched two new trade visualizers. Users can view their data using bubble charts and the map visualizer. "Bubble charts" display data in four dimensions. In each chart, the size of the country circle represents a volume measure, such as population or GDP. The position of the bubbles is determined by the indicators selected for the horizontal and vertical axes. The visualizer can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeVisualizer/. The "map visualizer" animates the export and import trade data from the UNSD COMTRADE database by commodity and partner country from 1988-2008. It can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeMapVisualizer/DataVisualizer.html.

The Services Trade Restrictions Database

• The Services Trade Restrictions Database collects information on applied services trade policies across 103 countries, 18 services sectors (covering telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of service supply. It contains qualitative policy information as well as a preliminary quantification of applied measures' restrictiveness. To access the database, see http://iresearch.worldbank.org/servicetrade/. For more information, visit the Open Data Catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/services-trade-restrictions.

2.7 Prices (World Bank)

International Comparison Programme

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

Environmental Indicators

• The 2013 edition of the World Development Indicators (WDI), the annual World Bank statistical flagship publication, included an updated and expanded set of 18 tables on environmental indicators covering some 150 countries. Its accompanying CD-ROM included time series data for more than 200 countries. In addition to the print edition, these data series are also available on the WDI Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do), as well as the Open Data website and APIs (http://data.worldbank.org/) under the following four topics; Agriculture & Rural Development; Climate Change; Energy & Mining; and Environment. In addition, the recently launched Climate Change Knowledge Portal (http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change) covers a wide array of information and data at the country and regional levels related to this subject. To find-out more about the Climate Change Portal. See http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A section of the environmental database is now available electronically on the World Bank's Environment Department website. The database includes, among others, the ECE countries and it is annually updated from various sources inside and outside the World Bank. Go to http://www.worldbank.org/environment and select Data & Statistics from the left navigation bar.

• The World Bank works with the UN Statistics Division in this area and continues to support initiatives in the field of environmental Work in this area has been bolstered by the development of accompanying indicators of environmental change including estimation of Adjusted Net Savings (genuine savings) and new estimates of the natural resources rents for more than 140 countries. These estimates are being published in the World Development Indicators and are also available in open data websites.

Priority objectives

• Development of core environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the international development goals adopted by the World Bank, United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

• Publication of environmental indicators through the World Development Indicators and the Environment Department website.

• Updated on a yearly basis. New products to be showcased in the website include environment at-a- glance fact sheets by country.

• The World Bank will continue to provide expertise on green accounting and the measurement of sustainable development through its participation in activities with UNECE and other international groups.

3.2 Regional and small area statistics (World Bank)

Sub-national Statistics

New Activities

• The Development Data Group of the World Bank is involved in maintaining, documenting, and incorporating sub-national data into its databases. We will be augmenting the World Development Indicators CD-ROM product to support mapping and charting of sub-national data.

Poverty Statistics

• In keeping with its Open Data Initiative to make more of its information accessible to the general public, the World Bank has launched an innovative data portal where visitors can query and download national or regional poverty statistics, use Apps to view and map trends in poverty and inequality, and view trends over time. The new Poverty & Equity Data site at http://povertydata.worldbank.org offers visitors easily comparable statistics that is critical for anybody seeking to keep poverty reduction on the world's agenda.

• New estimates of global poverty were the first re-evaluation of the World Bank's "$1 a day" poverty line since 1999. The international poverty line has been recalibrated at $1.25 a day, using new data on purchasing power parities (PPPs), compiled by the International Comparison Program, and an expanded set of household income and expenditure surveys. New measurements of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines.

• The World Bank does an overall assessment every three years of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world, based on household surveys. The latest estimates covering the period of 1981-2008 were released on February 29, 2012. The latest estimates draw on over 850 household surveys for almost 130 developing countries (representing 90% of the population of the developing world), and the Purchasing Power Parity rates for 2005 from the International Comparison Program. All past estimates have been revised back to 1981 on a consistent basis. • The World Bank will continue its theoretical and practical work in the area of measuring and analysing income poverty, as well as efforts in developing tools to measure the many other dimensions of poverty. In the past few years the WB prepared a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Source Book, which is designed as a handbook for the 42 PRSP countries (9 of them are in the ECE region) in developing their strategy for poverty alleviation. A considerable part of the book is focused on the issues of data on poverty, poverty measurement, and poverty monitoring. The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development. They include:

• Information on household surveys: key features and general information on income/consumption surveys conducted recently. The information sheets indicate whether household survey data are available to the general public. Links to the data set are provided when they are available on the web.

• Poverty Assessment Summaries conducted by the World Bank since 1993.

• Participatory Poverty Assessments, which provide basic information on assessments conducted by the Bank and other institutions.

• PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. it allows one to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of their choosing. (http://go.worldbank.org/NT2A1XUWP0).

• Training of statisticians and policy makers on how to use household survey data for analysis and policy is and will continue to be provided by the World Bank Institute on a regional basis. Country specific training on analysis is carried out under several LSMS projects and under Poverty Assessments.

• The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development.

MDG Indicators

• In collaboration with other international agencies the World Bank is working to strengthen the system to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At the international level, efforts are continuing to improve poverty and education data and to promote greater coordination in the compilation and dissemination of data on the MDG indicators. At the national level, efforts are under way to strengthen the capacity of countries to report on progress towards the goals and to document the statistical methods and procedures used. The Bank maintains a web site on Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDGs grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations. See also: http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ andhttp://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/millennium-development-indicators

• The World Bank's eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals produced in collaboration with Office of the Publisher, Development Data Group and Harper Collins lets one visualize and map the indicators that measure progress toward the Goals, with clear explanations of each Goal and its related Targets as the context. When one selects an indicator, the eAtlas creates a world map keyed to that indicator, with country rankings and data in table or graph formats. One can pan or zoom to view different countries or regions, view the dynamic change in that map with a time series, compare two maps and sets of data, and do much more. To see the atlas, go to http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/mdg/en

• The Millennium Development Goals and the Road to 2010 booklet was produced to examine the progress made so far on MDG targets. The report can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ website.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A MDGs Interactive Dashboard will be launched in Spring 2013. The Dashboard will allow users to visualize progress to date, as well as progress that can be realistically expected given ongoing trends, of each country, region, subject group, and the developing world as a whole. The Dashboard will also allow users to compare countries and regions of their choice and select alternative rates of progress to visualize the progress towards targets under different scenarios. The MDGs Interactive Dashboard will help inform the development community about what country experiences may be important lessons for achieving the MDGs, and what can be done to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs.

3.3.6 Sustainable development

Sustainable Development

• The World Bank contributes to the Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development (WGSSD). This group aims to develop a guidance document on developing asset-based approaches to measuring sustainable development.

• The World Bank contributes to the update of the Indicators of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development Indicators taskforce. Indicators are now classified as core and non-core and provide methodology sheets and background information to support indicator efforts in countries.

3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia (World Bank)

Compendia

• The Bank releases two annual publications both in hard copy and on CD-ROM, World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. The Atlas of Global Development is distributed in hard copy and electronic formats. Time-series data from these publications are available from the Bank's Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/.

2. Economic Statistics (World Bank)3.1 Environment (World Bank)

Environmental Indicators

• The 2013 edition of the World Development Indicators (WDI), the annual World Bank statistical flagship publication, included an updated and expanded set of 18 tables on environmental indicators covering some 150 countries. Its accompanying CD-ROM included time series data for more than 200 countries. In addition to the print edition, these data series are also available on the WDI Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do), as well as the Open Data website and APIs (http://data.worldbank.org/) under the following four topics; Agriculture & Rural Development; Climate Change; Energy & Mining; and Environment. In addition, the recently launched Climate Change Knowledge Portal (http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change) covers a wide array of information and data at the country and regional levels related to this subject. To find-out more about the Climate Change Portal. See http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A section of the environmental database is now available electronically on the World Bank's Environment Department website. The database includes, among others, the ECE countries and it is annually updated from various sources inside and outside the World Bank. Go to http://www.worldbank.org/environment and select Data & Statistics from the left navigation bar.

• The World Bank works with the UN Statistics Division in this area and continues to support initiatives in the field of environmental Work in this area has been bolstered by the development of accompanying indicators of environmental change including estimation of Adjusted Net Savings (genuine savings) and new estimates of the natural resources rents for more than 140 countries. These estimates are being published in the World Development Indicators and are also available in open data websites.

Priority objectives

• Development of core environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the international development goals adopted by the World Bank, United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

• Publication of environmental indicators through the World Development Indicators and the Environment Department website.

• Updated on a yearly basis. New products to be showcased in the website include environment at-a- glance fact sheets by country.

• The World Bank will continue to provide expertise on green accounting and the measurement of sustainable development through its participation in activities with UNECE and other international groups.

3.2 Regional and small area statistics (World Bank)

Sub-national Statistics

New Activities

• The Development Data Group of the World Bank is involved in maintaining, documenting, and incorporating sub-national data into its databases. We will be augmenting the World Development Indicators CD-ROM product to support mapping and charting of sub-national data.

Poverty Statistics

• In keeping with its Open Data Initiative to make more of its information accessible to the general public, the World Bank has launched an innovative data portal where visitors can query and download national or regional poverty statistics, use Apps to view and map trends in poverty and inequality, and view trends over time. The new Poverty & Equity Data site at http://povertydata.worldbank.org offers visitors easily comparable statistics that is critical for anybody seeking to keep poverty reduction on the world's agenda.

• New estimates of global poverty were the first re-evaluation of the World Bank's "$1 a day" poverty line since 1999. The international poverty line has been recalibrated at $1.25 a day, using new data on purchasing power parities (PPPs), compiled by the International Comparison Program, and an expanded set of household income and expenditure surveys. New measurements of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines.

• The World Bank does an overall assessment every three years of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world, based on household surveys. The latest estimates covering the period of 1981-2008 were released on February 29, 2012. The latest estimates draw on over 850 household surveys for almost 130 developing countries (representing 90% of the population of the developing world), and the Purchasing Power Parity rates for 2005 from the International Comparison Program. All past estimates have been revised back to 1981 on a consistent basis. • The World Bank will continue its theoretical and practical work in the area of measuring and analysing income poverty, as well as efforts in developing tools to measure the many other dimensions of poverty. In the past few years the WB prepared a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Source Book, which is designed as a handbook for the 42 PRSP countries (9 of them are in the ECE region) in developing their strategy for poverty alleviation. A considerable part of the book is focused on the issues of data on poverty, poverty measurement, and poverty monitoring. The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development. They include:

• Information on household surveys: key features and general information on income/consumption surveys conducted recently. The information sheets indicate whether household survey data are available to the general public. Links to the data set are provided when they are available on the web.

• Poverty Assessment Summaries conducted by the World Bank since 1993.

• Participatory Poverty Assessments, which provide basic information on assessments conducted by the Bank and other institutions.

• PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. it allows one to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of their choosing. (http://go.worldbank.org/NT2A1XUWP0).

• Training of statisticians and policy makers on how to use household survey data for analysis and policy is and will continue to be provided by the World Bank Institute on a regional basis. Country specific training on analysis is carried out under several LSMS projects and under Poverty Assessments.

• The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development.

MDG Indicators

• In collaboration with other international agencies the World Bank is working to strengthen the system to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At the international level, efforts are continuing to improve poverty and education data and to promote greater coordination in the compilation and dissemination of data on the MDG indicators. At the national level, efforts are under way to strengthen the capacity of countries to report on progress towards the goals and to document the statistical methods and procedures used. The Bank maintains a web site on Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDGs grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations. See also: http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ andhttp://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/millennium-development-indicators

• The World Bank's eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals produced in collaboration with Office of the Publisher, Development Data Group and Harper Collins lets one visualize and map the indicators that measure progress toward the Goals, with clear explanations of each Goal and its related Targets as the context. When one selects an indicator, the eAtlas creates a world map keyed to that indicator, with country rankings and data in table or graph formats. One can pan or zoom to view different countries or regions, view the dynamic change in that map with a time series, compare two maps and sets of data, and do much more. To see the atlas, go to http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/mdg/en

• The Millennium Development Goals and the Road to 2010 booklet was produced to examine the progress made so far on MDG targets. The report can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ website.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A MDGs Interactive Dashboard will be launched in Spring 2013. The Dashboard will allow users to visualize progress to date, as well as progress that can be realistically expected given ongoing trends, of each country, region, subject group, and the developing world as a whole. The Dashboard will also allow users to compare countries and regions of their choice and select alternative rates of progress to visualize the progress towards targets under different scenarios. The MDGs Interactive Dashboard will help inform the development community about what country experiences may be important lessons for achieving the MDGs, and what can be done to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs.

3.3.6 Sustainable development

Sustainable Development

• The World Bank contributes to the Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development (WGSSD). This group aims to develop a guidance document on developing asset-based approaches to measuring sustainable development.

• The World Bank contributes to the update of the Indicators of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development Indicators taskforce. Indicators are now classified as core and non-core and provide methodology sheets and background information to support indicator efforts in countries.

3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia (World Bank)

Compendia

• The Bank releases two annual publications both in hard copy and on CD-ROM, World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. The Atlas of Global Development is distributed in hard copy and electronic formats. Time-series data from these publications are available from the Bank's Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/.

Environmental Indicators

• The 2013 edition of the World Development Indicators (WDI), the annual World Bank statistical flagship publication, included an updated and expanded set of 18 tables on environmental indicators covering some 150 countries. Its accompanying CD-ROM included time series data for more than 200 countries. In addition to the print edition, these data series are also available on the WDI Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do), as well as the Open Data website and APIs (http://data.worldbank.org/) under the following four topics; Agriculture & Rural Development; Climate Change; Energy & Mining; and Environment. In addition, the recently launched Climate Change Knowledge Portal (http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change) covers a wide array of information and data at the country and regional levels related to this subject. To find-out more about the Climate Change Portal. See http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A section of the environmental database is now available electronically on the World Bank's Environment Department website. The database includes, among others, the ECE countries and it is annually updated from various sources inside and outside the World Bank. Go to http://www.worldbank.org/environment and select Data & Statistics from the left navigation bar.

• The World Bank works with the UN Statistics Division in this area and continues to support initiatives in the field of environmental Work in this area has been bolstered by the development of accompanying indicators of environmental change including estimation of Adjusted Net Savings (genuine savings) and new estimates of the natural resources rents for more than 140 countries. These estimates are being published in the World Development Indicators and are also available in open data websites.

Priority objectives

• Development of core environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the international development goals adopted by the World Bank, United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

• Publication of environmental indicators through the World Development Indicators and the Environment Department website.

• Updated on a yearly basis. New products to be showcased in the website include environment at-a- glance fact sheets by country.

• The World Bank will continue to provide expertise on green accounting and the measurement of sustainable development through its participation in activities with UNECE and other international groups.

3.2 Regional and small area statistics (World Bank)

Sub-national Statistics

New Activities

• The Development Data Group of the World Bank is involved in maintaining, documenting, and incorporating sub-national data into its databases. We will be augmenting the World Development Indicators CD-ROM product to support mapping and charting of sub-national data.

Poverty Statistics

• In keeping with its Open Data Initiative to make more of its information accessible to the general public, the World Bank has launched an innovative data portal where visitors can query and download national or regional poverty statistics, use Apps to view and map trends in poverty and inequality, and view trends over time. The new Poverty & Equity Data site at http://povertydata.worldbank.org offers visitors easily comparable statistics that is critical for anybody seeking to keep poverty reduction on the world's agenda.

• New estimates of global poverty were the first re-evaluation of the World Bank's "$1 a day" poverty line since 1999. The international poverty line has been recalibrated at $1.25 a day, using new data on purchasing power parities (PPPs), compiled by the International Comparison Program, and an expanded set of household income and expenditure surveys. New measurements of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines.

• The World Bank does an overall assessment every three years of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world, based on household surveys. The latest estimates covering the period of 1981-2008 were released on February 29, 2012. The latest estimates draw on over 850 household surveys for almost 130 developing countries (representing 90% of the population of the developing world), and the Purchasing Power Parity rates for 2005 from the International Comparison Program. All past estimates have been revised back to 1981 on a consistent basis. • The World Bank will continue its theoretical and practical work in the area of measuring and analysing income poverty, as well as efforts in developing tools to measure the many other dimensions of poverty. In the past few years the WB prepared a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Source Book, which is designed as a handbook for the 42 PRSP countries (9 of them are in the ECE region) in developing their strategy for poverty alleviation. A considerable part of the book is focused on the issues of data on poverty, poverty measurement, and poverty monitoring. The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development. They include:

• Information on household surveys: key features and general information on income/consumption surveys conducted recently. The information sheets indicate whether household survey data are available to the general public. Links to the data set are provided when they are available on the web.

• Poverty Assessment Summaries conducted by the World Bank since 1993.

• Participatory Poverty Assessments, which provide basic information on assessments conducted by the Bank and other institutions.

• PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. it allows one to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of their choosing. (http://go.worldbank.org/NT2A1XUWP0).

• Training of statisticians and policy makers on how to use household survey data for analysis and policy is and will continue to be provided by the World Bank Institute on a regional basis. Country specific training on analysis is carried out under several LSMS projects and under Poverty Assessments.

• The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development.

MDG Indicators

• In collaboration with other international agencies the World Bank is working to strengthen the system to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At the international level, efforts are continuing to improve poverty and education data and to promote greater coordination in the compilation and dissemination of data on the MDG indicators. At the national level, efforts are under way to strengthen the capacity of countries to report on progress towards the goals and to document the statistical methods and procedures used. The Bank maintains a web site on Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDGs grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations. See also: http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ andhttp://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/millennium-development-indicators

• The World Bank's eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals produced in collaboration with Office of the Publisher, Development Data Group and Harper Collins lets one visualize and map the indicators that measure progress toward the Goals, with clear explanations of each Goal and its related Targets as the context. When one selects an indicator, the eAtlas creates a world map keyed to that indicator, with country rankings and data in table or graph formats. One can pan or zoom to view different countries or regions, view the dynamic change in that map with a time series, compare two maps and sets of data, and do much more. To see the atlas, go to http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/mdg/en

• The Millennium Development Goals and the Road to 2010 booklet was produced to examine the progress made so far on MDG targets. The report can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ website.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A MDGs Interactive Dashboard will be launched in Spring 2013. The Dashboard will allow users to visualize progress to date, as well as progress that can be realistically expected given ongoing trends, of each country, region, subject group, and the developing world as a whole. The Dashboard will also allow users to compare countries and regions of their choice and select alternative rates of progress to visualize the progress towards targets under different scenarios. The MDGs Interactive Dashboard will help inform the development community about what country experiences may be important lessons for achieving the MDGs, and what can be done to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs.

3.3.6 Sustainable development

Sustainable Development

• The World Bank contributes to the Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development (WGSSD). This group aims to develop a guidance document on developing asset-based approaches to measuring sustainable development.

• The World Bank contributes to the update of the Indicators of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development Indicators taskforce. Indicators are now classified as core and non-core and provide methodology sheets and background information to support indicator efforts in countries.

3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia (World Bank)

Compendia

• The Bank releases two annual publications both in hard copy and on CD-ROM, World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. The Atlas of Global Development is distributed in hard copy and electronic formats. Time-series data from these publications are available from the Bank's Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/.

Environmental Indicators

• The 2013 edition of the World Development Indicators (WDI), the annual World Bank statistical flagship publication, included an updated and expanded set of 18 tables on environmental indicators covering some 150 countries. Its accompanying CD-ROM included time series data for more than 200 countries. In addition to the print edition, these data series are also available on the WDI Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do), as well as the Open Data website and APIs (http://data.worldbank.org/) under the following four topics; Agriculture & Rural Development; Climate Change; Energy & Mining; and Environment. In addition, the recently launched Climate Change Knowledge Portal (http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change) covers a wide array of information and data at the country and regional levels related to this subject. To find-out more about the Climate Change Portal. See http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A section of the environmental database is now available electronically on the World Bank's Environment Department website. The database includes, among others, the ECE countries and it is annually updated from various sources inside and outside the World Bank. Go to http://www.worldbank.org/environment and select Data & Statistics from the left navigation bar.

• The World Bank works with the UN Statistics Division in this area and continues to support initiatives in the field of environmental Work in this area has been bolstered by the development of accompanying indicators of environmental change including estimation of Adjusted Net Savings (genuine savings) and new estimates of the natural resources rents for more than 140 countries. These estimates are being published in the World Development Indicators and are also available in open data websites.

Priority objectives

• Development of core environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the international development goals adopted by the World Bank, United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

• Publication of environmental indicators through the World Development Indicators and the Environment Department website.

• Updated on a yearly basis. New products to be showcased in the website include environment at-a- glance fact sheets by country.

• The World Bank will continue to provide expertise on green accounting and the measurement of sustainable development through its participation in activities with UNECE and other international groups.

3.2 Regional and small area statistics (World Bank)

Sub-national Statistics

New Activities

• The Development Data Group of the World Bank is involved in maintaining, documenting, and incorporating sub-national data into its databases. We will be augmenting the World Development Indicators CD-ROM product to support mapping and charting of sub-national data.

Poverty Statistics

• In keeping with its Open Data Initiative to make more of its information accessible to the general public, the World Bank has launched an innovative data portal where visitors can query and download national or regional poverty statistics, use Apps to view and map trends in poverty and inequality, and view trends over time. The new Poverty & Equity Data site at http://povertydata.worldbank.org offers visitors easily comparable statistics that is critical for anybody seeking to keep poverty reduction on the world's agenda.

• New estimates of global poverty were the first re-evaluation of the World Bank's "$1 a day" poverty line since 1999. The international poverty line has been recalibrated at $1.25 a day, using new data on purchasing power parities (PPPs), compiled by the International Comparison Program, and an expanded set of household income and expenditure surveys. New measurements of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines.

• The World Bank does an overall assessment every three years of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world, based on household surveys. The latest estimates covering the period of 1981-2008 were released on February 29, 2012. The latest estimates draw on over 850 household surveys for almost 130 developing countries (representing 90% of the population of the developing world), and the Purchasing Power Parity rates for 2005 from the International Comparison Program. All past estimates have been revised back to 1981 on a consistent basis. • The World Bank will continue its theoretical and practical work in the area of measuring and analysing income poverty, as well as efforts in developing tools to measure the many other dimensions of poverty. In the past few years the WB prepared a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Source Book, which is designed as a handbook for the 42 PRSP countries (9 of them are in the ECE region) in developing their strategy for poverty alleviation. A considerable part of the book is focused on the issues of data on poverty, poverty measurement, and poverty monitoring. The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development. They include:

• Information on household surveys: key features and general information on income/consumption surveys conducted recently. The information sheets indicate whether household survey data are available to the general public. Links to the data set are provided when they are available on the web.

• Poverty Assessment Summaries conducted by the World Bank since 1993.

• Participatory Poverty Assessments, which provide basic information on assessments conducted by the Bank and other institutions.

• PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. it allows one to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of their choosing. (http://go.worldbank.org/NT2A1XUWP0).

• Training of statisticians and policy makers on how to use household survey data for analysis and policy is and will continue to be provided by the World Bank Institute on a regional basis. Country specific training on analysis is carried out under several LSMS projects and under Poverty Assessments.

• The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development.

MDG Indicators

• In collaboration with other international agencies the World Bank is working to strengthen the system to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At the international level, efforts are continuing to improve poverty and education data and to promote greater coordination in the compilation and dissemination of data on the MDG indicators. At the national level, efforts are under way to strengthen the capacity of countries to report on progress towards the goals and to document the statistical methods and procedures used. The Bank maintains a web site on Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDGs grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations. See also: http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ andhttp://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/millennium-development-indicators

• The World Bank's eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals produced in collaboration with Office of the Publisher, Development Data Group and Harper Collins lets one visualize and map the indicators that measure progress toward the Goals, with clear explanations of each Goal and its related Targets as the context. When one selects an indicator, the eAtlas creates a world map keyed to that indicator, with country rankings and data in table or graph formats. One can pan or zoom to view different countries or regions, view the dynamic change in that map with a time series, compare two maps and sets of data, and do much more. To see the atlas, go to http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/mdg/en

• The Millennium Development Goals and the Road to 2010 booklet was produced to examine the progress made so far on MDG targets. The report can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ website.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A MDGs Interactive Dashboard will be launched in Spring 2013. The Dashboard will allow users to visualize progress to date, as well as progress that can be realistically expected given ongoing trends, of each country, region, subject group, and the developing world as a whole. The Dashboard will also allow users to compare countries and regions of their choice and select alternative rates of progress to visualize the progress towards targets under different scenarios. The MDGs Interactive Dashboard will help inform the development community about what country experiences may be important lessons for achieving the MDGs, and what can be done to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs.

3.3.6 Sustainable development

Sustainable Development

• The World Bank contributes to the Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development (WGSSD). This group aims to develop a guidance document on developing asset-based approaches to measuring sustainable development.

• The World Bank contributes to the update of the Indicators of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development Indicators taskforce. Indicators are now classified as core and non-core and provide methodology sheets and background information to support indicator efforts in countries.

3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia (World Bank)

Compendia

• The Bank releases two annual publications both in hard copy and on CD-ROM, World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. The Atlas of Global Development is distributed in hard copy and electronic formats. Time-series data from these publications are available from the Bank's Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/.

Environmental Indicators

• The 2013 edition of the World Development Indicators (WDI), the annual World Bank statistical flagship publication, included an updated and expanded set of 18 tables on environmental indicators covering some 150 countries. Its accompanying CD-ROM included time series data for more than 200 countries. In addition to the print edition, these data series are also available on the WDI Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do), as well as the Open Data website and APIs (http://data.worldbank.org/) under the following four topics; Agriculture & Rural Development; Climate Change; Energy & Mining; and Environment. In addition, the recently launched Climate Change Knowledge Portal (http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change) covers a wide array of information and data at the country and regional levels related to this subject. To find-out more about the Climate Change Portal. See http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A section of the environmental database is now available electronically on the World Bank's Environment Department website. The database includes, among others, the ECE countries and it is annually updated from various sources inside and outside the World Bank. Go to http://www.worldbank.org/environment and select Data & Statistics from the left navigation bar.

• The World Bank works with the UN Statistics Division in this area and continues to support initiatives in the field of environmental Work in this area has been bolstered by the development of accompanying indicators of environmental change including estimation of Adjusted Net Savings (genuine savings) and new estimates of the natural resources rents for more than 140 countries. These estimates are being published in the World Development Indicators and are also available in open data websites.

Priority objectives

• Development of core environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the international development goals adopted by the World Bank, United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

• Publication of environmental indicators through the World Development Indicators and the Environment Department website.

• Updated on a yearly basis. New products to be showcased in the website include environment at-a- glance fact sheets by country.

• The World Bank will continue to provide expertise on green accounting and the measurement of sustainable development through its participation in activities with UNECE and other international groups.

3.2 Regional and small area statistics (World Bank)

Sub-national Statistics

New Activities

• The Development Data Group of the World Bank is involved in maintaining, documenting, and incorporating sub-national data into its databases. We will be augmenting the World Development Indicators CD-ROM product to support mapping and charting of sub-national data.

Poverty Statistics

• In keeping with its Open Data Initiative to make more of its information accessible to the general public, the World Bank has launched an innovative data portal where visitors can query and download national or regional poverty statistics, use Apps to view and map trends in poverty and inequality, and view trends over time. The new Poverty & Equity Data site at http://povertydata.worldbank.org offers visitors easily comparable statistics that is critical for anybody seeking to keep poverty reduction on the world's agenda.

• New estimates of global poverty were the first re-evaluation of the World Bank's "$1 a day" poverty line since 1999. The international poverty line has been recalibrated at $1.25 a day, using new data on purchasing power parities (PPPs), compiled by the International Comparison Program, and an expanded set of household income and expenditure surveys. New measurements of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines.

• The World Bank does an overall assessment every three years of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world, based on household surveys. The latest estimates covering the period of 1981-2008 were released on February 29, 2012. The latest estimates draw on over 850 household surveys for almost 130 developing countries (representing 90% of the population of the developing world), and the Purchasing Power Parity rates for 2005 from the International Comparison Program. All past estimates have been revised back to 1981 on a consistent basis. • The World Bank will continue its theoretical and practical work in the area of measuring and analysing income poverty, as well as efforts in developing tools to measure the many other dimensions of poverty. In the past few years the WB prepared a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Source Book, which is designed as a handbook for the 42 PRSP countries (9 of them are in the ECE region) in developing their strategy for poverty alleviation. A considerable part of the book is focused on the issues of data on poverty, poverty measurement, and poverty monitoring. The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development. They include:

• Information on household surveys: key features and general information on income/consumption surveys conducted recently. The information sheets indicate whether household survey data are available to the general public. Links to the data set are provided when they are available on the web.

• Poverty Assessment Summaries conducted by the World Bank since 1993.

• Participatory Poverty Assessments, which provide basic information on assessments conducted by the Bank and other institutions.

• PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. it allows one to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of their choosing. (http://go.worldbank.org/NT2A1XUWP0).

• Training of statisticians and policy makers on how to use household survey data for analysis and policy is and will continue to be provided by the World Bank Institute on a regional basis. Country specific training on analysis is carried out under several LSMS projects and under Poverty Assessments.

• The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development.

MDG Indicators

• In collaboration with other international agencies the World Bank is working to strengthen the system to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At the international level, efforts are continuing to improve poverty and education data and to promote greater coordination in the compilation and dissemination of data on the MDG indicators. At the national level, efforts are under way to strengthen the capacity of countries to report on progress towards the goals and to document the statistical methods and procedures used. The Bank maintains a web site on Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDGs grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations. See also: http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ andhttp://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/millennium-development-indicators

• The World Bank's eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals produced in collaboration with Office of the Publisher, Development Data Group and Harper Collins lets one visualize and map the indicators that measure progress toward the Goals, with clear explanations of each Goal and its related Targets as the context. When one selects an indicator, the eAtlas creates a world map keyed to that indicator, with country rankings and data in table or graph formats. One can pan or zoom to view different countries or regions, view the dynamic change in that map with a time series, compare two maps and sets of data, and do much more. To see the atlas, go to http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/mdg/en

• The Millennium Development Goals and the Road to 2010 booklet was produced to examine the progress made so far on MDG targets. The report can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ website.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A MDGs Interactive Dashboard will be launched in Spring 2013. The Dashboard will allow users to visualize progress to date, as well as progress that can be realistically expected given ongoing trends, of each country, region, subject group, and the developing world as a whole. The Dashboard will also allow users to compare countries and regions of their choice and select alternative rates of progress to visualize the progress towards targets under different scenarios. The MDGs Interactive Dashboard will help inform the development community about what country experiences may be important lessons for achieving the MDGs, and what can be done to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs.

3.3.6 Sustainable development

Sustainable Development

• The World Bank contributes to the Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development (WGSSD). This group aims to develop a guidance document on developing asset-based approaches to measuring sustainable development.

• The World Bank contributes to the update of the Indicators of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development Indicators taskforce. Indicators are now classified as core and non-core and provide methodology sheets and background information to support indicator efforts in countries.

3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia (World Bank)

Compendia

• The Bank releases two annual publications both in hard copy and on CD-ROM, World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. The Atlas of Global Development is distributed in hard copy and electronic formats. Time-series data from these publications are available from the Bank's Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/.

DDI

• Together with the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), the World Bank is advocating and supporting the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification (DDI Codebook) for the documentation and dissemination of microdata. In 2012, the data Group supported the development/upgrade of DDI-compliant software applications, including a DDI metadata editor and an open-source survey cataloguing tool (all available at www.ihsn.org). The software has been translated into French and Russian. These applications and related guidelines will be further developed in 2013.

4.3 Data sources (World Bank)1.5 Income and consumption (World Bank)

Household Income and Expenditure

• Database on Household Expenditure and Income Data for Transitional Economies developed as part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies. The data addresses critical questions, such as the group most likely to be poor, how well social assistance programs reach people, and the kinds of programs that would most effectively reduce poverty (http://go.worldbank.org/KTN5N3L4H0).

Gender

• Gender Data Portal, one-stop-shop for gender statistics and information, was launched in July 2012. Data are organized under six thematic headings, which are aligned to the themes identified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. The portal includes gender datasets from the United Nations(UN) compiled by its Regional Commissions and Sectoral Agencies, as well as World Bank conducted or funded surveys and reports, such as the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) on Gender and Development. The data available should enable assessment of Bank funding of gender-informed activities , as well as monitoring of country progress on key development agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals , IDA 16 and the Bank’s Corporate Scorecard. This portal is a work in progress -- the database will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, and as new gender priorities are identified. The portal is available at http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/.

• Global assessment of gender issues in household surveys is underway to understand if gender relevant information is collected in existing household surveys and censuses. The assessment form is ready to assess a wide collection of survey questionnaires, and the assessment will take place in early 2013.

• The Bank has commissioned and provided support for UNSD to finalize the Gender Statistics Manual and Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women.

• Multi-media training modules for collecting, analyzing, and using gender data have been developed and are available in the Gender Data Portal.

• A special segment on violence against women, including interviews with government officials and women leaders, was developed for advocacy purposes, in response to demand from developing countries.

• Statistical capacity building project for improving gender statistics is underway in Burundi, Kenya and Vietnam.

Governance indicators

• The World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency and the World Bank Institute produce the annual database Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The WGI estimates six dimensions of governance covering215 countries and territories for 1996-2011: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The latest aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from over 30 data sources. Individual measures of governance are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance, and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators. Both point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of error are presented for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. The WGI also addresses various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of error, significance of changes over time, and correlation between governance and income. Visit World Bank’s Open data website on WGI at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators or access the World Bank Institute's Governance website at: http://www.govindicators.org.

• The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment exercise is carried out annually by World Bank Staff. Numerical scores of International Development Association (IDA) eligible countries, known as the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IRAI) were first publicly disclosed in June 2006. Country performance is assessed against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions. See the IRAI database at http://go.worldbank.org/S2THWI1X60.

Actionable Governance Indicators

• Actionable governance indicators focus on specific aspects of governance, and are designed to provide guidance on the design of reforms and the monitoring of impacts. See https://www.agidata.org/Site/

4.5 Dissemination, data warehousing (World Bank)

Dissemination

The Development Data Group of the World Bank uses the following systems for data retrieval and dissemination:

• As part of the World Bank's new open data initiative (ODI), the Bank launched a new website http://data.worldbank.org in April 2010 to provide free, open and easy access to over 8,000 indicators in four languages: English, Spanish, French Arabic and Chinese. Visitors to the site can easily find, download, manipulate, use, and re-use the data compiled by the World Bank, without restrictions. They can also take advantage of graph and mapping tools. Over the past year, more World Bank datasets, such as Climate Change, Projects and Operations, Finance and Microdata have been added to the data repositories that have joined the ODI. The site allows individuals, groups, and organizations to create applications, programs, visualizations, and other tools that will help monitor and measure progress of various development initiatives and projects. Additionally, the data can be used to create new and innovative solutions for international development, helping with the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty across the globe. One of the components of the new Open Data is the data retrieval system called the DataBank providing access to over 40 30 databases. Some of the links available from the DataBank on various topical databases include: - Gender at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=283; - Education at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=2&id=4&CNO=1159; - Health-Nutrition-Population HNPStats at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=311; - Etc.

• The Gateway initiative is envisioned as a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience http://www.developmentgateway.org/.

• As part of the World Bank's new Access to Information Policy and building on the success of the Open Data initiative the Mapping for Results Platform was by the World Bank Institute and AidData in partnership with various World Bank departments (AFTSD, LCSDE, DECDG, OPCS) to geo-reference and visualize the geographic location of World Bank financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level. See http://maps.worldbank.org/.

• The World Bank Microdata Library (http://microdata.worldbank.org) provides access to survey and census data and metadata. The number of surveys and censuses listed in this catalog is expected to grow significantly in 2012. . The Microdata Library will keep expanding in 2013.

• Data Visualizer is a tool creating animated charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users. Adding animation to this only increases its impact. To use this new tool, see http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/.

DataFinder apps

• The new version of the World Bank's DataFinder 3,0 is now available on three platforms - iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. This application is part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative to make development data more accessible and easier to use. This is an offline application and does not require a 3G or WiFi connection to the World Bank's Open Data website. Users can are presented with a pre-selected set of indicators for a country/country grouping or for a thematic topic (e.g. environment, gender, trade etc.). Data can be charted or viewed on an animated map. Users can also compare indicators for two countries. All tables, charts, maps can be shared via email or via social media software such Facebook and Twitter. the new DataFinder 3.0 has an Advanced Query Feature that allows users to create their own data tables and charts from 50 years of World Bank data on more than 1,100 global social and economic indicators for over 200 countries/economies and country groups - all of which can be used in presentations, projects, and shared via email. it also contains improved visualizations including a map with zoom-in features. Since the launch of the first DataFinder application, major improvements have been made, including the ability to switch between tables, lines and bar charts; view data in tabular forms; display charts with more than one country and more than one indicator; navigate forward/backward between countries and indicators, etc. will be downloadable in 2012 from Apple, Google and the Blackberry stores. For more information, see http://data.worldbank.org/apps

WDI DataFinder

• A full app gives access to all indicators from WDI database, which include topic such as the Economy, Environment, Gender, Health, Population, Infrastructure, Private Sector Development, Trade, etc. This app is available in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-datafinder/id349081196?mt=8

EdStats DataFinder

• The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s education statistics database, which includes over 2,000 indicators on topics such as enrollment, completion, learning outcomes, education expenditures, teaches, and pre-primary to tertiary education. App users can access education data by country, topic, or indicator, and view the resulting data in tables, charts, or maps that can be easily shared though email, Facebook, and Twitter. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-edstats-datafinder/id467566445?mt=8

Jobs DataFinder

• The app provides easy access to global development indicators on employments, human capital and skills, labor market institutions and the business environment. Its collection of development indicators is compiled from officially-recognized international sources and represents the most recent and accurate data on these topics. The data is shared through the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative and is supported by the Jobs Knowledge Platform. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-jobs-datafinder/id557102462?mt=8

Poverty and Inequality DataFinder

• This app provides quick access to the latest poverty and inequality indicators for more than 120 developing countries. Visualize trends in charts and maps, explore the indicators in tables, and share them with friends and colleagues through email and social media. The Poverty Datafinder is useful to students, professors, researchers, development practitioners, and anyone looking to learn more about poverty and inequality in the developing world. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-poverty-inequality/id557157064?mt=8

Health Stats

• This app contains the most current Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) data for over 250 indicators and more than 200 countries and regional/income groups. The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s HNP statistics database, which includes topics such as health, HIV/AIDS, immunization, infectious diseases, medical resources and usage, nutrition, population dynamics, reproductive health, cause of death, non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation, with background information in poverty, labor force, economy and education. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-hnpstats-datafinder/id555291286?mt=8

New Data Portals/Websites

• The World Bank has developed new websites that are collections of freely available data and tools. They provide data dashboards on various topics and contain tables, charts, and maps as well as access to all the underlying data through our latest data visualization and sharing application, DataBank.

• Together with the IMF, the World Bank will continue to work on the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) which provides guidelines to the countries in the dissemination of economic, financial and socio-demographic data to the public and establishes a broad framework for countries seeking improvements in their statistical systems. The World Bank has developed guidelines for the preparation of metadata covering the following areas: population, education, health, poverty assessment and monitoring. The World Bank, as part of phase one of this project, in collaboration with the IMF, has been participating in regional seminars and in preparation of the GDDS metadata for participating countries, as well as providing technical support from headquarters or in the field to staff of member countries participating in the GDDS.

• For WITS and Trade visualizers, see section 2.6.

2. Economic Statistics (World Bank)4.1 Metadata (World Bank)

DDI

• Together with the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), the World Bank is advocating and supporting the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification (DDI Codebook) for the documentation and dissemination of microdata. In 2012, the data Group supported the development/upgrade of DDI-compliant software applications, including a DDI metadata editor and an open-source survey cataloguing tool (all available at www.ihsn.org). The software has been translated into French and Russian. These applications and related guidelines will be further developed in 2013.

4.3 Data sources (World Bank)2.2 Economic accounts (World Bank)

Gross National Income

Ongoing work

Atlas GNI per Capital

• The World Bank estimates dollar converted gross national income (GNI) per capita for all borrowing member countries, as well as most other economies.

• Per capita GNI for a country in local currency terms is converted into U.S. dollars by applying the Atlas conversion factor. The Atlas conversion factor is the simple arithmetic average of the current exchange rate and the exchange rates in the previous two years adjusted for the ratio of domestic to international inflation. The change in the GDP-deflator is used as a measure of domestic inflation, and the change in the SDR-deflator to represent international inflation. The SDR-deflator is compiled as a weighted average of the EURO-area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan's GDP-deflators.

• The purpose of applying the Atlas conversion factor is to lessen the effect of fluctuations and abrupt changes in the exchange rate, which can be heavily affected by capital flows. Thus, income measures converted using the Atlas conversion factor tend to be more stable over time, and changes in income rankings are more likely to reflect changes in relative economic performance than exchange rate fluctuations.

National Accounts

• The Bank continues its collaboration with the UN, IMF, OECD, and EUROSTAT through the Inter-Secretariat working group on national accounts (ISWGNA). The World Bank supports the implementation of the 2008 SNA in developing countries through activities of its regular work program of statistical capacity building, as well as through the ICP Program. The World Bank is preparing two handbooks complimenting the 2008 SNA aimed specifically at supporting national accountants in small developing countries. The first of these is the 2008 SNA - Concepts in Brief, and the second an accompanying implementation guide, the 2008 SNA - Implementation in Brief. The World Bank has also developed an e-learning course on National Accounts, which will is provided free of charge on the web.2.3 Business statistics (World Bank)

Business statistics

Doing Business

• The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 185 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. Topics include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. See the Doing Business website: http://www.doingbusiness.org/ or from the Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/doing-business-database.

Enterprise Surveys

• An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. More detailed information about the Enterprise Surveys can be found on the Methodology page. See the Enterprise survey website: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI)

• The PPI Project Database has data on more than 6,000 infrastructure projects in 139 low- and middle-income countries. The database is the leading source of PPI trends in the developing world, covering projects in the energy, telecommunications, transport, and water and sewerage. See the PPI database: http://ppi.worldbank.org/.2.4 Sectoral statistics (World Bank)4.3.3 Household surveys (World Bank)

International Household Survey Network (IHSN and Acceleted Dat Program (ADP))

• The World Bank participates in the governing body of the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), established in September 2004 (with various UN agencies, regional development banks, PARIS21, and other bilateral and multilateral partners), and coordinates the IHSN secretariat. (http://www.ihsn.org/) IHSN advocates better survey planning, promotes harmonization and development of data collection instruments, provides survey data dissemination tools and guidelines, and maintains a central survey and census catalogue. In 2012, the IHSN launched a new survey catalog. The catalog cover all low and middle-income countries.

• In 2013, the World Bank and IHSN will pursue the development of software and guidelines related to the documentation, anonymization, cataloguing, dissemination and preservation of microdata.

• The World Bank, in partnership with PARIS21, is providing training and technical support to statistical agencies and other national and regional data producers and curators on the use of the DDI standard and IHSN microdata management tools, under the Accelerated Data Program (ADP; see www.adp.ihsn.org). In 2012, this technical support program was initiated in Belarus, Russia, and Tajikistan. A pool of experts was also trained in Moldova. In 2013, this program is expected to be expanded to other countries in the region.

Living Standards Measurement Survey

• Living Standards Measurement Survey Database contains all information on LSMS surveys that have been carried out. Documentation, questionnaires, manuals and other basic information can be downloaded from the site. The actual data can either be downloaded directly from the site (where countries have given permission) or may be requested from the database manager. Each survey data set contains constructed welfare measures that can be used for poverty analysis. To increase the ease of use and accessibility of the LSMS data sets two new tools are being constructed. The first is a searchable metadata file that allows researchers and analysts to identify those surveys that meet their research needs. A further effort to expand the use of the LSMS data sets is an interactive multi-survey data base that allows for on-the-fly tables and other analyses of the data for those who do not have the skills or time to analyze full household surveys.

• The World Bank continues to provide assistance in planning, designing, implementing and analyzing the Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys. The LSMS surveys represent one piece of larger, integrated efforts to improve the overall statistical system of each country by providing quality household level data.

• The WB ISTAT and the PRSP unit have supported efforts to determine the feasibility of using the HBS to measure welfare in future years.

• Regional work is being carried out in analyzing welfare data and how LSMS and HBS surveys are similar and dissimilar and the implications this has for welfare analysis over time.

• The LSMS group has developed a program of research investigating methodological issues related to the measurement of key concepts, how to improve data quality and ways in which LSMS survey data can be linked to other data bases. In the region, steps have been taken in designing experiments on the measurement of consumption.

• Assistance in planning, designing, implementing and analyzing LSMS surveys is provided by staff in DECRG-Poverty Group. Assistance includes technical advice on all stages of survey work, from deciding on the need for an LSMS survey, how best to design and implement such a survey, to how the resulting data can be analyzed. The goal is to foster increased use of household data as a basis for policy decision-making. The LSMS is working to develop new methods to monitor progress in raising levels of living, to identify the consequences for households of past and proposed government policies, and to improve communications between survey statisticians, analysts, and policy makers. A variety of printed and electronic materials are also available to survey planners and analysts. Several of these are: i) the book on Designing Household Survey Questionnaires for Developing Countries: Lessons from Fifteen years of the LSMS Surveys, that link the policy questions to be answered to the actual data that must be collected; ii) a Manual for Planning and Implementing LSMS Surveys, that covers all phases of an LSMS survey, from budgeting, to sampling, field work and data management and analysis; iii) examples of questionnaires, manuals and other field work material from all countries where LSMS surveys have been done; iv) case studies on how to increase the analytic capacity in country; v) databases from more than 88 LSMS surveys.

• Formal training courses on survey design and implementation along with hands-on-training are provided, both within and outside the Bank.New techniques in small area estimation for poverty mapping are being developed that link census and household survey data. Training in these techniques as well as technical assistance in their implementation is also provided by DECRG-PO.

• The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) web site provides access to documentation and data from LSMS surveys done in the region, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Tajikistan. For more information, visit the LSMS site.2.6 International trade and balance of payments (World Bank)

External Debt Statistics

• The World Bank's Debt Reporting System (DRS) requires every member country, which has received either an IBRD loan or an IDA credit to provide information on its external debt. The borrowing countries are required to report their long-term external debt on the following forms:

• Form 1 - Description of Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed which consists of information on each loan characteristics, such as commitment date, amount of loan commitment, loan purpose, interest rate, and terms and conditions of payments.

• Form 1A - Schedule of Drawings and Principal and Interest Payments for Individual External Public Debt and Private Debt Publicly Guaranteed, purpose of which is to enable the Bank to make projections of future payments of principal and interest for those loans that have irregular patterns of repayments.

• Form 2 - Individual External Public Debts and Private Debts Publicly Guaranteed: Current Status and Transactions During Period. This form contains loan-by-loan information on debt stocks and debt flows during the reporting period.

• The World Bank has been working closely with the Commonwealth secretariat and the UNCTAD to improve the data collection across the globe.

• The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources on a quarterly basis. The creditor/market data are complemented in JEDH using national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Database. National data has been extended to include not only SDDS/QEDS countries, but also GDDS/QEDS countries. The JEDH uses Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), which applies technological innovation to the context and content of information being exchanged with the aim of generating efficiencies through the convergence of data flows into a common framework. The Bank is also working in collaboration with the IMF and other partners to improve statistics on remittance flows to developing countries. The system is accessible from: http://www.jedh.org.

• The Quarterly External Debt (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed external debt data of countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Sixty eight SDDS countries (68) and forty two (42)GDDS countries are currently participating in this initiative. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qeds.

• The Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics (QPSD) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of selected developing /emerging market countries. The main purpose of the PSD database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparison. The participation of countries in this centralized database is voluntary. Currently, 64 developing countries have agreed to participate and 40 provided data to the PSD database. In order to enhance the availability of the public debt database to the advanced economies The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited OECD countries and a few non OECD countries to participate in this initiative. Currently 27 advanced economies have provided data to the PSD database.The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support countries' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of public sector debt data. The system is accessible from: http://www.worldbank.org/qpsd.

• DECDG also published the International Debt Statistics 2013, which is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). IDS 2013 contains statistical tables for 128 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups. To find-out more, go to http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/international-debt-statistics.

Foreign Trade Statistics

Ongoing work

• The web-basedWorld Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration and consultation with various International Organizations including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and World Trade Organization (WTO). This new software does not require installation and it is fully web-based. WITS gives you access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data:

• The United Nations COMTRADE database maintained by UNSD.

• The TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD.

• The IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

• The merchandise trade data is based on bilateral trade between every reporting and trading partner. Tariff and non-tariff data are from UNCTAD files. The system also provides tariff data from WTO's IDB and CTS databases. In addition, WITS contains simulation tools that are extremely useful for trade negotiations. Users can simulate the impact of tariff changes on trade flows. To access the new WITS, visit http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/.

• In addition to the software, the Bank launched two new trade visualizers. Users can view their data using bubble charts and the map visualizer. "Bubble charts" display data in four dimensions. In each chart, the size of the country circle represents a volume measure, such as population or GDP. The position of the bubbles is determined by the indicators selected for the horizontal and vertical axes. The visualizer can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeVisualizer/. The "map visualizer" animates the export and import trade data from the UNSD COMTRADE database by commodity and partner country from 1988-2008. It can be accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/TradeMapVisualizer/DataVisualizer.html.

The Services Trade Restrictions Database

• The Services Trade Restrictions Database collects information on applied services trade policies across 103 countries, 18 services sectors (covering telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of service supply. It contains qualitative policy information as well as a preliminary quantification of applied measures' restrictiveness. To access the database, see http://iresearch.worldbank.org/servicetrade/. For more information, visit the Open Data Catalog at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/services-trade-restrictions.2.7 Prices (World Bank)

International Comparison Programme

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

• The International Comparison Program is a global statistical initiative under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, designed to collect comparative price data and compile detailed expenditure values of countries' gross domestic products (GDP), and to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. It contributes substantially towards the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations by improving the reliability of estimates of those living in poverty and enabling more accurate comparisons of GDP and component levels across countries.

• The number of participating economies has grown to 197 in the current round, up from 146 in the 2005 ICP round. This round covers about 98 per cent of the world population. Participation in almost all regions has increased, with 50 countries in Africa; 23 in the Asia and Pacific region; 9 in the Commonwealth of Independent States; 37 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 12 in Western Asia; 21 in the Pacific Islands; 2 singleton countries; and 47 in the OECD-Eurostat PPP Programme. From these 197 countries, four participate in two different regional programmes. It is to be noted that some countries/economies in the Pacific and the Caribbean are participating in a limited capacity by conducting surveys for the Household Consumption component of the GDP only.

• The overall work plan remains effectively on schedule and the final results are expected to be released in December 2013 as originally planned. To ensure that the work programme for the 2011 round proceeds as planned, various meetings of governance bodies were held. These included meetings of the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Group, and Regional Coordinators.

• The Global Office and the Validation Expert Group are currently validating price data and metadata to assess the following: (a) comparability of data; (b) extent of which Global Core prices represent/reflect regional price levels; (c) density/scarcity of price data and its effect on computing linking factors; (d) quality of resulting linking factors; and (e) time consistency with 2005 data. National Accounts expenditure data are being validated: (a) spatially at intra-country and inter-country levels; and (b) temporally against data from previous years. Additionally, preventive measures are being implemented to ensure the utmost quality of data, metadata, and completeness while abiding to the timeline.

• The ICP Book “Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy” was published in November, 2012 and will be available online on the ICP website (www.worldbank.org/data/icp). The book is a compendium of the methodological framework for conducting international comparisons, the methodological choices made for the 2005 ICP, the outcome of those choices, and actions to improve the quality of the data for the 2011 ICP. In the framework of the ICP advocacy activities in the CIS region, the CIS-STAT initiated the translation of the ICP Book into Russian. The translated ICP Book will be posted on the CIS-STAT website as well as on the ICP website.

• In accordance with the ICP work schedule, in the CIS region, all 10 CIS participating countries have collected the price data for the ICP. During the period from December 2011 to December 2012, major activities carried out in the CIS region included regional meetings and workshops on validating price data and compiling GDP expenditure estimates.

• The validation for the data for the comparison of dwellings, compensation of employees for non-market services, investment items and construction materials is still in progress with the intention to submit the data to the ICP Global Office by the end of December 2012.

Dissemination

The Development Data Group of the World Bank uses the following systems for data retrieval and dissemination:

• As part of the World Bank's new open data initiative (ODI), the Bank launched a new website http://data.worldbank.org in April 2010 to provide free, open and easy access to over 8,000 indicators in four languages: English, Spanish, French Arabic and Chinese. Visitors to the site can easily find, download, manipulate, use, and re-use the data compiled by the World Bank, without restrictions. They can also take advantage of graph and mapping tools. Over the past year, more World Bank datasets, such as Climate Change, Projects and Operations, Finance and Microdata have been added to the data repositories that have joined the ODI. The site allows individuals, groups, and organizations to create applications, programs, visualizations, and other tools that will help monitor and measure progress of various development initiatives and projects. Additionally, the data can be used to create new and innovative solutions for international development, helping with the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty across the globe. One of the components of the new Open Data is the data retrieval system called the DataBank providing access to over 40 30 databases. Some of the links available from the DataBank on various topical databases include: - Gender at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=283; - Education at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=2&id=4&CNO=1159; - Health-Nutrition-Population HNPStats at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=311; - Etc.

• The Gateway initiative is envisioned as a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience http://www.developmentgateway.org/.

• As part of the World Bank's new Access to Information Policy and building on the success of the Open Data initiative the Mapping for Results Platform was by the World Bank Institute and AidData in partnership with various World Bank departments (AFTSD, LCSDE, DECDG, OPCS) to geo-reference and visualize the geographic location of World Bank financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level. See http://maps.worldbank.org/.

• The World Bank Microdata Library (http://microdata.worldbank.org) provides access to survey and census data and metadata. The number of surveys and censuses listed in this catalog is expected to grow significantly in 2012. . The Microdata Library will keep expanding in 2013.

• Data Visualizer is a tool creating animated charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users. Adding animation to this only increases its impact. To use this new tool, see http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/.

DataFinder apps

• The new version of the World Bank's DataFinder 3,0 is now available on three platforms - iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. This application is part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative to make development data more accessible and easier to use. This is an offline application and does not require a 3G or WiFi connection to the World Bank's Open Data website. Users can are presented with a pre-selected set of indicators for a country/country grouping or for a thematic topic (e.g. environment, gender, trade etc.). Data can be charted or viewed on an animated map. Users can also compare indicators for two countries. All tables, charts, maps can be shared via email or via social media software such Facebook and Twitter. the new DataFinder 3.0 has an Advanced Query Feature that allows users to create their own data tables and charts from 50 years of World Bank data on more than 1,100 global social and economic indicators for over 200 countries/economies and country groups - all of which can be used in presentations, projects, and shared via email. it also contains improved visualizations including a map with zoom-in features. Since the launch of the first DataFinder application, major improvements have been made, including the ability to switch between tables, lines and bar charts; view data in tabular forms; display charts with more than one country and more than one indicator; navigate forward/backward between countries and indicators, etc. will be downloadable in 2012 from Apple, Google and the Blackberry stores. For more information, see http://data.worldbank.org/apps

WDI DataFinder

• A full app gives access to all indicators from WDI database, which include topic such as the Economy, Environment, Gender, Health, Population, Infrastructure, Private Sector Development, Trade, etc. This app is available in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-datafinder/id349081196?mt=8

EdStats DataFinder

• The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s education statistics database, which includes over 2,000 indicators on topics such as enrollment, completion, learning outcomes, education expenditures, teaches, and pre-primary to tertiary education. App users can access education data by country, topic, or indicator, and view the resulting data in tables, charts, or maps that can be easily shared though email, Facebook, and Twitter. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-edstats-datafinder/id467566445?mt=8

Jobs DataFinder

• The app provides easy access to global development indicators on employments, human capital and skills, labor market institutions and the business environment. Its collection of development indicators is compiled from officially-recognized international sources and represents the most recent and accurate data on these topics. The data is shared through the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative and is supported by the Jobs Knowledge Platform. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-jobs-datafinder/id557102462?mt=8

Poverty and Inequality DataFinder

• This app provides quick access to the latest poverty and inequality indicators for more than 120 developing countries. Visualize trends in charts and maps, explore the indicators in tables, and share them with friends and colleagues through email and social media. The Poverty Datafinder is useful to students, professors, researchers, development practitioners, and anyone looking to learn more about poverty and inequality in the developing world. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-poverty-inequality/id557157064?mt=8

Health Stats

• This app contains the most current Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) data for over 250 indicators and more than 200 countries and regional/income groups. The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s HNP statistics database, which includes topics such as health, HIV/AIDS, immunization, infectious diseases, medical resources and usage, nutrition, population dynamics, reproductive health, cause of death, non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation, with background information in poverty, labor force, economy and education. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-hnpstats-datafinder/id555291286?mt=8

New Data Portals/Websites

• The World Bank has developed new websites that are collections of freely available data and tools. They provide data dashboards on various topics and contain tables, charts, and maps as well as access to all the underlying data through our latest data visualization and sharing application, DataBank.

• Together with the IMF, the World Bank will continue to work on the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) which provides guidelines to the countries in the dissemination of economic, financial and socio-demographic data to the public and establishes a broad framework for countries seeking improvements in their statistical systems. The World Bank has developed guidelines for the preparation of metadata covering the following areas: population, education, health, poverty assessment and monitoring. The World Bank, as part of phase one of this project, in collaboration with the IMF, has been participating in regional seminars and in preparation of the GDDS metadata for participating countries, as well as providing technical support from headquarters or in the field to staff of member countries participating in the GDDS.

DDI

• Together with the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), the World Bank is advocating and supporting the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification (DDI Codebook) for the documentation and dissemination of microdata. In 2012, the data Group supported the development/upgrade of DDI-compliant software applications, including a DDI metadata editor and an open-source survey cataloguing tool (all available at www.ihsn.org). The software has been translated into French and Russian. These applications and related guidelines will be further developed in 2013.

4.3 Data sources (World Bank)3.1 Environment (World Bank)

Environmental Indicators

• The 2013 edition of the World Development Indicators (WDI), the annual World Bank statistical flagship publication, included an updated and expanded set of 18 tables on environmental indicators covering some 150 countries. Its accompanying CD-ROM included time series data for more than 200 countries. In addition to the print edition, these data series are also available on the WDI Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do), as well as the Open Data website and APIs (http://data.worldbank.org/) under the following four topics; Agriculture & Rural Development; Climate Change; Energy & Mining; and Environment. In addition, the recently launched Climate Change Knowledge Portal (http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change) covers a wide array of information and data at the country and regional levels related to this subject. To find-out more about the Climate Change Portal. See http://data.worldbank.org/climate-change.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A section of the environmental database is now available electronically on the World Bank's Environment Department website. The database includes, among others, the ECE countries and it is annually updated from various sources inside and outside the World Bank. Go to http://www.worldbank.org/environment and select Data & Statistics from the left navigation bar.

• The World Bank works with the UN Statistics Division in this area and continues to support initiatives in the field of environmental Work in this area has been bolstered by the development of accompanying indicators of environmental change including estimation of Adjusted Net Savings (genuine savings) and new estimates of the natural resources rents for more than 140 countries. These estimates are being published in the World Development Indicators and are also available in open data websites.

Priority objectives

• Development of core environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the international development goals adopted by the World Bank, United Nations and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.

• Publication of environmental indicators through the World Development Indicators and the Environment Department website.

• Updated on a yearly basis. New products to be showcased in the website include environment at-a- glance fact sheets by country.

• The World Bank will continue to provide expertise on green accounting and the measurement of sustainable development through its participation in activities with UNECE and other international groups.3.2 Regional and small area statistics (World Bank)

Sub-national Statistics

New Activities

• The Development Data Group of the World Bank is involved in maintaining, documenting, and incorporating sub-national data into its databases. We will be augmenting the World Development Indicators CD-ROM product to support mapping and charting of sub-national data.

Statistics for Small States

• The Small States Supplement 2011 is a supplement to the World Development Indicators 2011 and presents data for developing member countries of the Small States Forum. This special supplement covers critical development factors within Small States. The data in this supplement covers 41 members of the Small States Forum excluding the high-income countries of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Malta, Qatar, and San Marino. See http://data.worldbank.org/news/small-states-supplement-2011 or the PDF file at http://data.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/small-states-2011.pdf.3.3 Multi-domain statistics and indicators (World Bank)Infrastructure Indicators

Ongoing work:

3.3.1 Living conditions, poverty and cross-cutting social issues

Poverty Statistics

• In keeping with its Open Data Initiative to make more of its information accessible to the general public, the World Bank has launched an innovative data portal where visitors can query and download national or regional poverty statistics, use Apps to view and map trends in poverty and inequality, and view trends over time. The new Poverty & Equity Data site at http://povertydata.worldbank.org offers visitors easily comparable statistics that is critical for anybody seeking to keep poverty reduction on the world's agenda.

• New estimates of global poverty were the first re-evaluation of the World Bank's "$1 a day" poverty line since 1999. The international poverty line has been recalibrated at $1.25 a day, using new data on purchasing power parities (PPPs), compiled by the International Comparison Program, and an expanded set of household income and expenditure surveys. New measurements of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines.

• The World Bank does an overall assessment every three years of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world, based on household surveys. The latest estimates covering the period of 1981-2008 were released on February 29, 2012. The latest estimates draw on over 850 household surveys for almost 130 developing countries (representing 90% of the population of the developing world), and the Purchasing Power Parity rates for 2005 from the International Comparison Program. All past estimates have been revised back to 1981 on a consistent basis. • The World Bank will continue its theoretical and practical work in the area of measuring and analysing income poverty, as well as efforts in developing tools to measure the many other dimensions of poverty. In the past few years the WB prepared a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Source Book, which is designed as a handbook for the 42 PRSP countries (9 of them are in the ECE region) in developing their strategy for poverty alleviation. A considerable part of the book is focused on the issues of data on poverty, poverty measurement, and poverty monitoring. The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development. They include:

• Information on household surveys: key features and general information on income/consumption surveys conducted recently. The information sheets indicate whether household survey data are available to the general public. Links to the data set are provided when they are available on the web.

• Poverty Assessment Summaries conducted by the World Bank since 1993.

• Participatory Poverty Assessments, which provide basic information on assessments conducted by the Bank and other institutions.

• PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. it allows one to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of their choosing. (http://go.worldbank.org/NT2A1XUWP0).

• Training of statisticians and policy makers on how to use household survey data for analysis and policy is and will continue to be provided by the World Bank Institute on a regional basis. Country specific training on analysis is carried out under several LSMS projects and under Poverty Assessments.

• The Bank will continue maintenance and updating of databases on Poverty developed to assist countries in monitoring poverty trends and embarking on strategies to help them reduce poverty. The aim is to help countries reach the Strategy 21 goals of fostering economic well-being and social development.

MDG Indicators

• In collaboration with other international agencies the World Bank is working to strengthen the system to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At the international level, efforts are continuing to improve poverty and education data and to promote greater coordination in the compilation and dissemination of data on the MDG indicators. At the national level, efforts are under way to strengthen the capacity of countries to report on progress towards the goals and to document the statistical methods and procedures used. The Bank maintains a web site on Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDGs grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations. See also: http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ andhttp://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/millennium-development-indicators

• The World Bank's eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals produced in collaboration with Office of the Publisher, Development Data Group and Harper Collins lets one visualize and map the indicators that measure progress toward the Goals, with clear explanations of each Goal and its related Targets as the context. When one selects an indicator, the eAtlas creates a world map keyed to that indicator, with country rankings and data in table or graph formats. One can pan or zoom to view different countries or regions, view the dynamic change in that map with a time series, compare two maps and sets of data, and do much more. To see the atlas, go to http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/mdg/en

• The Millennium Development Goals and the Road to 2010 booklet was produced to examine the progress made so far on MDG targets. The report can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/ website.

• The World Bank contributes to the development of core and supplementary environmental indicators for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals through the Environment subgroup of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs.

• A MDGs Interactive Dashboard will be launched in Spring 2013. The Dashboard will allow users to visualize progress to date, as well as progress that can be realistically expected given ongoing trends, of each country, region, subject group, and the developing world as a whole. The Dashboard will also allow users to compare countries and regions of their choice and select alternative rates of progress to visualize the progress towards targets under different scenarios. The MDGs Interactive Dashboard will help inform the development community about what country experiences may be important lessons for achieving the MDGs, and what can be done to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs.

3.3.6 Sustainable development

Sustainable Development

• The World Bank contributes to the Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development (WGSSD). This group aims to develop a guidance document on developing asset-based approaches to measuring sustainable development.

• The World Bank contributes to the update of the Indicators of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development Indicators taskforce. Indicators are now classified as core and non-core and provide methodology sheets and background information to support indicator efforts in countries.3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia (World Bank)

Compendia

• The Bank releases two annual publications both in hard copy and on CD-ROM, World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. The Atlas of Global Development is distributed in hard copy and electronic formats. Time-series data from these publications are available from the Bank's Open Data site at http://data.worldbank.org/.

4.5 Dissemination, data warehousing (World Bank)

Dissemination

The Development Data Group of the World Bank uses the following systems for data retrieval and dissemination:

• As part of the World Bank's new open data initiative (ODI), the Bank launched a new website http://data.worldbank.org in April 2010 to provide free, open and easy access to over 8,000 indicators in four languages: English, Spanish, French Arabic and Chinese. Visitors to the site can easily find, download, manipulate, use, and re-use the data compiled by the World Bank, without restrictions. They can also take advantage of graph and mapping tools. Over the past year, more World Bank datasets, such as Climate Change, Projects and Operations, Finance and Microdata have been added to the data repositories that have joined the ODI. The site allows individuals, groups, and organizations to create applications, programs, visualizations, and other tools that will help monitor and measure progress of various development initiatives and projects. Additionally, the data can be used to create new and innovative solutions for international development, helping with the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty across the globe. One of the components of the new Open Data is the data retrieval system called the DataBank providing access to over 40 30 databases. Some of the links available from the DataBank on various topical databases include: - Gender at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=283; - Education at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=2&id=4&CNO=1159; - Health-Nutrition-Population HNPStats at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=311; - Etc.

• The Gateway initiative is envisioned as a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience http://www.developmentgateway.org/.

• As part of the World Bank's new Access to Information Policy and building on the success of the Open Data initiative the Mapping for Results Platform was by the World Bank Institute and AidData in partnership with various World Bank departments (AFTSD, LCSDE, DECDG, OPCS) to geo-reference and visualize the geographic location of World Bank financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level. See http://maps.worldbank.org/.

• The World Bank Microdata Library (http://microdata.worldbank.org) provides access to survey and census data and metadata. The number of surveys and censuses listed in this catalog is expected to grow significantly in 2012. . The Microdata Library will keep expanding in 2013.

• Data Visualizer is a tool creating animated charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users. Adding animation to this only increases its impact. To use this new tool, see http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/.

DataFinder apps

• The new version of the World Bank's DataFinder 3,0 is now available on three platforms - iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. This application is part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative to make development data more accessible and easier to use. This is an offline application and does not require a 3G or WiFi connection to the World Bank's Open Data website. Users can are presented with a pre-selected set of indicators for a country/country grouping or for a thematic topic (e.g. environment, gender, trade etc.). Data can be charted or viewed on an animated map. Users can also compare indicators for two countries. All tables, charts, maps can be shared via email or via social media software such Facebook and Twitter. the new DataFinder 3.0 has an Advanced Query Feature that allows users to create their own data tables and charts from 50 years of World Bank data on more than 1,100 global social and economic indicators for over 200 countries/economies and country groups - all of which can be used in presentations, projects, and shared via email. it also contains improved visualizations including a map with zoom-in features. Since the launch of the first DataFinder application, major improvements have been made, including the ability to switch between tables, lines and bar charts; view data in tabular forms; display charts with more than one country and more than one indicator; navigate forward/backward between countries and indicators, etc. will be downloadable in 2012 from Apple, Google and the Blackberry stores. For more information, see http://data.worldbank.org/apps

WDI DataFinder

• A full app gives access to all indicators from WDI database, which include topic such as the Economy, Environment, Gender, Health, Population, Infrastructure, Private Sector Development, Trade, etc. This app is available in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-datafinder/id349081196?mt=8

EdStats DataFinder

• The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s education statistics database, which includes over 2,000 indicators on topics such as enrollment, completion, learning outcomes, education expenditures, teaches, and pre-primary to tertiary education. App users can access education data by country, topic, or indicator, and view the resulting data in tables, charts, or maps that can be easily shared though email, Facebook, and Twitter. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-edstats-datafinder/id467566445?mt=8

Jobs DataFinder

• The app provides easy access to global development indicators on employments, human capital and skills, labor market institutions and the business environment. Its collection of development indicators is compiled from officially-recognized international sources and represents the most recent and accurate data on these topics. The data is shared through the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative and is supported by the Jobs Knowledge Platform. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-jobs-datafinder/id557102462?mt=8

Poverty and Inequality DataFinder

• This app provides quick access to the latest poverty and inequality indicators for more than 120 developing countries. Visualize trends in charts and maps, explore the indicators in tables, and share them with friends and colleagues through email and social media. The Poverty Datafinder is useful to students, professors, researchers, development practitioners, and anyone looking to learn more about poverty and inequality in the developing world. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-poverty-inequality/id557157064?mt=8

Health Stats

• This app contains the most current Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) data for over 250 indicators and more than 200 countries and regional/income groups. The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s HNP statistics database, which includes topics such as health, HIV/AIDS, immunization, infectious diseases, medical resources and usage, nutrition, population dynamics, reproductive health, cause of death, non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation, with background information in poverty, labor force, economy and education. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-hnpstats-datafinder/id555291286?mt=8

New Data Portals/Websites

• The World Bank has developed new websites that are collections of freely available data and tools. They provide data dashboards on various topics and contain tables, charts, and maps as well as access to all the underlying data through our latest data visualization and sharing application, DataBank.

• Together with the IMF, the World Bank will continue to work on the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) which provides guidelines to the countries in the dissemination of economic, financial and socio-demographic data to the public and establishes a broad framework for countries seeking improvements in their statistical systems. The World Bank has developed guidelines for the preparation of metadata covering the following areas: population, education, health, poverty assessment and monitoring. The World Bank, as part of phase one of this project, in collaboration with the IMF, has been participating in regional seminars and in preparation of the GDDS metadata for participating countries, as well as providing technical support from headquarters or in the field to staff of member countries participating in the GDDS.

DDI

• Together with the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), the World Bank is advocating and supporting the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification (DDI Codebook) for the documentation and dissemination of microdata. In 2012, the data Group supported the development/upgrade of DDI-compliant software applications, including a DDI metadata editor and an open-source survey cataloguing tool (all available at www.ihsn.org). The software has been translated into French and Russian. These applications and related guidelines will be further developed in 2013.

4.3 Data sources (World Bank)4.1 Metadata (World Bank)

DDI

• Together with the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), the World Bank is advocating and supporting the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification (DDI Codebook) for the documentation and dissemination of microdata. In 2012, the data Group supported the development/upgrade of DDI-compliant software applications, including a DDI metadata editor and an open-source survey cataloguing tool (all available at www.ihsn.org). The software has been translated into French and Russian. These applications and related guidelines will be further developed in 2013.4.3 Data sources (World Bank)4.3.3 Household surveys (World Bank)

International Household Survey Network (IHSN and Acceleted Dat Program (ADP))

• The World Bank participates in the governing body of the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), established in September 2004 (with various UN agencies, regional development banks, PARIS21, and other bilateral and multilateral partners), and coordinates the IHSN secretariat. (http://www.ihsn.org/) IHSN advocates better survey planning, promotes harmonization and development of data collection instruments, provides survey data dissemination tools and guidelines, and maintains a central survey and census catalogue. In 2012, the IHSN launched a new survey catalog. The catalog cover all low and middle-income countries.

• In 2013, the World Bank and IHSN will pursue the development of software and guidelines related to the documentation, anonymization, cataloguing, dissemination and preservation of microdata.

• The World Bank, in partnership with PARIS21, is providing training and technical support to statistical agencies and other national and regional data producers and curators on the use of the DDI standard and IHSN microdata management tools, under the Accelerated Data Program (ADP; see www.adp.ihsn.org). In 2012, this technical support program was initiated in Belarus, Russia, and Tajikistan. A pool of experts was also trained in Moldova. In 2013, this program is expected to be expanded to other countries in the region.

Living Standards Measurement Survey

• Living Standards Measurement Survey Database contains all information on LSMS surveys that have been carried out. Documentation, questionnaires, manuals and other basic information can be downloaded from the site. The actual data can either be downloaded directly from the site (where countries have given permission) or may be requested from the database manager. Each survey data set contains constructed welfare measures that can be used for poverty analysis. To increase the ease of use and accessibility of the LSMS data sets two new tools are being constructed. The first is a searchable metadata file that allows researchers and analysts to identify those surveys that meet their research needs. A further effort to expand the use of the LSMS data sets is an interactive multi-survey data base that allows for on-the-fly tables and other analyses of the data for those who do not have the skills or time to analyze full household surveys.

• The World Bank continues to provide assistance in planning, designing, implementing and analyzing the Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys. The LSMS surveys represent one piece of larger, integrated efforts to improve the overall statistical system of each country by providing quality household level data.

• The WB ISTAT and the PRSP unit have supported efforts to determine the feasibility of using the HBS to measure welfare in future years.

• Regional work is being carried out in analyzing welfare data and how LSMS and HBS surveys are similar and dissimilar and the implications this has for welfare analysis over time.

• The LSMS group has developed a program of research investigating methodological issues related to the measurement of key concepts, how to improve data quality and ways in which LSMS survey data can be linked to other data bases. In the region, steps have been taken in designing experiments on the measurement of consumption.

• Assistance in planning, designing, implementing and analyzing LSMS surveys is provided by staff in DECRG-Poverty Group. Assistance includes technical advice on all stages of survey work, from deciding on the need for an LSMS survey, how best to design and implement such a survey, to how the resulting data can be analyzed. The goal is to foster increased use of household data as a basis for policy decision-making. The LSMS is working to develop new methods to monitor progress in raising levels of living, to identify the consequences for households of past and proposed government policies, and to improve communications between survey statisticians, analysts, and policy makers. A variety of printed and electronic materials are also available to survey planners and analysts. Several of these are: i) the book on Designing Household Survey Questionnaires for Developing Countries: Lessons from Fifteen years of the LSMS Surveys, that link the policy questions to be answered to the actual data that must be collected; ii) a Manual for Planning and Implementing LSMS Surveys, that covers all phases of an LSMS survey, from budgeting, to sampling, field work and data management and analysis; iii) examples of questionnaires, manuals and other field work material from all countries where LSMS surveys have been done; iv) case studies on how to increase the analytic capacity in country; v) databases from more than 88 LSMS surveys.

• Formal training courses on survey design and implementation along with hands-on-training are provided, both within and outside the Bank.New techniques in small area estimation for poverty mapping are being developed that link census and household survey data. Training in these techniques as well as technical assistance in their implementation is also provided by DECRG-PO.

Dissemination

The Development Data Group of the World Bank uses the following systems for data retrieval and dissemination:

• As part of the World Bank's new open data initiative (ODI), the Bank launched a new website http://data.worldbank.org in April 2010 to provide free, open and easy access to over 8,000 indicators in four languages: English, Spanish, French Arabic and Chinese. Visitors to the site can easily find, download, manipulate, use, and re-use the data compiled by the World Bank, without restrictions. They can also take advantage of graph and mapping tools. Over the past year, more World Bank datasets, such as Climate Change, Projects and Operations, Finance and Microdata have been added to the data repositories that have joined the ODI. The site allows individuals, groups, and organizations to create applications, programs, visualizations, and other tools that will help monitor and measure progress of various development initiatives and projects. Additionally, the data can be used to create new and innovative solutions for international development, helping with the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty across the globe. One of the components of the new Open Data is the data retrieval system called the DataBank providing access to over 40 30 databases. Some of the links available from the DataBank on various topical databases include: - Gender at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=283; - Education at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=2&id=4&CNO=1159; - Health-Nutrition-Population HNPStats at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=311; - Etc.

• The Gateway initiative is envisioned as a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience http://www.developmentgateway.org/.

• As part of the World Bank's new Access to Information Policy and building on the success of the Open Data initiative the Mapping for Results Platform was by the World Bank Institute and AidData in partnership with various World Bank departments (AFTSD, LCSDE, DECDG, OPCS) to geo-reference and visualize the geographic location of World Bank financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level. See http://maps.worldbank.org/.

• The World Bank Microdata Library (http://microdata.worldbank.org) provides access to survey and census data and metadata. The number of surveys and censuses listed in this catalog is expected to grow significantly in 2012. . The Microdata Library will keep expanding in 2013.

• Data Visualizer is a tool creating animated charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users. Adding animation to this only increases its impact. To use this new tool, see http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/.

DataFinder apps

• The new version of the World Bank's DataFinder 3,0 is now available on three platforms - iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. This application is part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative to make development data more accessible and easier to use. This is an offline application and does not require a 3G or WiFi connection to the World Bank's Open Data website. Users can are presented with a pre-selected set of indicators for a country/country grouping or for a thematic topic (e.g. environment, gender, trade etc.). Data can be charted or viewed on an animated map. Users can also compare indicators for two countries. All tables, charts, maps can be shared via email or via social media software such Facebook and Twitter. the new DataFinder 3.0 has an Advanced Query Feature that allows users to create their own data tables and charts from 50 years of World Bank data on more than 1,100 global social and economic indicators for over 200 countries/economies and country groups - all of which can be used in presentations, projects, and shared via email. it also contains improved visualizations including a map with zoom-in features. Since the launch of the first DataFinder application, major improvements have been made, including the ability to switch between tables, lines and bar charts; view data in tabular forms; display charts with more than one country and more than one indicator; navigate forward/backward between countries and indicators, etc. will be downloadable in 2012 from Apple, Google and the Blackberry stores. For more information, see http://data.worldbank.org/apps

WDI DataFinder

• A full app gives access to all indicators from WDI database, which include topic such as the Economy, Environment, Gender, Health, Population, Infrastructure, Private Sector Development, Trade, etc. This app is available in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-datafinder/id349081196?mt=8

EdStats DataFinder

• The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s education statistics database, which includes over 2,000 indicators on topics such as enrollment, completion, learning outcomes, education expenditures, teaches, and pre-primary to tertiary education. App users can access education data by country, topic, or indicator, and view the resulting data in tables, charts, or maps that can be easily shared though email, Facebook, and Twitter. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-edstats-datafinder/id467566445?mt=8

Jobs DataFinder

• The app provides easy access to global development indicators on employments, human capital and skills, labor market institutions and the business environment. Its collection of development indicators is compiled from officially-recognized international sources and represents the most recent and accurate data on these topics. The data is shared through the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative and is supported by the Jobs Knowledge Platform. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-jobs-datafinder/id557102462?mt=8

Poverty and Inequality DataFinder

• This app provides quick access to the latest poverty and inequality indicators for more than 120 developing countries. Visualize trends in charts and maps, explore the indicators in tables, and share them with friends and colleagues through email and social media. The Poverty Datafinder is useful to students, professors, researchers, development practitioners, and anyone looking to learn more about poverty and inequality in the developing world. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-poverty-inequality/id557157064?mt=8

Health Stats

• This app contains the most current Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) data for over 250 indicators and more than 200 countries and regional/income groups. The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s HNP statistics database, which includes topics such as health, HIV/AIDS, immunization, infectious diseases, medical resources and usage, nutrition, population dynamics, reproductive health, cause of death, non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation, with background information in poverty, labor force, economy and education. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-hnpstats-datafinder/id555291286?mt=8

New Data Portals/Websites

• The World Bank has developed new websites that are collections of freely available data and tools. They provide data dashboards on various topics and contain tables, charts, and maps as well as access to all the underlying data through our latest data visualization and sharing application, DataBank.

• Together with the IMF, the World Bank will continue to work on the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) which provides guidelines to the countries in the dissemination of economic, financial and socio-demographic data to the public and establishes a broad framework for countries seeking improvements in their statistical systems. The World Bank has developed guidelines for the preparation of metadata covering the following areas: population, education, health, poverty assessment and monitoring. The World Bank, as part of phase one of this project, in collaboration with the IMF, has been participating in regional seminars and in preparation of the GDDS metadata for participating countries, as well as providing technical support from headquarters or in the field to staff of member countries participating in the GDDS.

• For WITS and Trade visualizers, see section 2.6.

4.5 Dissemination, data warehousing (World Bank)

Dissemination

The Development Data Group of the World Bank uses the following systems for data retrieval and dissemination:

• As part of the World Bank's new open data initiative (ODI), the Bank launched a new website http://data.worldbank.org in April 2010 to provide free, open and easy access to over 8,000 indicators in four languages: English, Spanish, French Arabic and Chinese. Visitors to the site can easily find, download, manipulate, use, and re-use the data compiled by the World Bank, without restrictions. They can also take advantage of graph and mapping tools. Over the past year, more World Bank datasets, such as Climate Change, Projects and Operations, Finance and Microdata have been added to the data repositories that have joined the ODI. The site allows individuals, groups, and organizations to create applications, programs, visualizations, and other tools that will help monitor and measure progress of various development initiatives and projects. Additionally, the data can be used to create new and innovative solutions for international development, helping with the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty across the globe. One of the components of the new Open Data is the data retrieval system called the DataBank providing access to over 40 30 databases. Some of the links available from the DataBank on various topical databases include: - Gender at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=283; - Education at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=2&id=4&CNO=1159; - Health-Nutrition-Population HNPStats at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=311; - Etc.

• The Gateway initiative is envisioned as a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience http://www.developmentgateway.org/.

• As part of the World Bank's new Access to Information Policy and building on the success of the Open Data initiative the Mapping for Results Platform was by the World Bank Institute and AidData in partnership with various World Bank departments (AFTSD, LCSDE, DECDG, OPCS) to geo-reference and visualize the geographic location of World Bank financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level. See http://maps.worldbank.org/.

• The World Bank Microdata Library (http://microdata.worldbank.org) provides access to survey and census data and metadata. The number of surveys and censuses listed in this catalog is expected to grow significantly in 2012. . The Microdata Library will keep expanding in 2013.

• Data Visualizer is a tool creating animated charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users. Adding animation to this only increases its impact. To use this new tool, see http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/.

DataFinder apps

• The new version of the World Bank's DataFinder 3,0 is now available on three platforms - iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. This application is part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative to make development data more accessible and easier to use. This is an offline application and does not require a 3G or WiFi connection to the World Bank's Open Data website. Users can are presented with a pre-selected set of indicators for a country/country grouping or for a thematic topic (e.g. environment, gender, trade etc.). Data can be charted or viewed on an animated map. Users can also compare indicators for two countries. All tables, charts, maps can be shared via email or via social media software such Facebook and Twitter. the new DataFinder 3.0 has an Advanced Query Feature that allows users to create their own data tables and charts from 50 years of World Bank data on more than 1,100 global social and economic indicators for over 200 countries/economies and country groups - all of which can be used in presentations, projects, and shared via email. it also contains improved visualizations including a map with zoom-in features. Since the launch of the first DataFinder application, major improvements have been made, including the ability to switch between tables, lines and bar charts; view data in tabular forms; display charts with more than one country and more than one indicator; navigate forward/backward between countries and indicators, etc. will be downloadable in 2012 from Apple, Google and the Blackberry stores. For more information, see http://data.worldbank.org/apps

WDI DataFinder

• A full app gives access to all indicators from WDI database, which include topic such as the Economy, Environment, Gender, Health, Population, Infrastructure, Private Sector Development, Trade, etc. This app is available in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-datafinder/id349081196?mt=8

EdStats DataFinder

• The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s education statistics database, which includes over 2,000 indicators on topics such as enrollment, completion, learning outcomes, education expenditures, teaches, and pre-primary to tertiary education. App users can access education data by country, topic, or indicator, and view the resulting data in tables, charts, or maps that can be easily shared though email, Facebook, and Twitter. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-edstats-datafinder/id467566445?mt=8

Jobs DataFinder

• The app provides easy access to global development indicators on employments, human capital and skills, labor market institutions and the business environment. Its collection of development indicators is compiled from officially-recognized international sources and represents the most recent and accurate data on these topics. The data is shared through the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative and is supported by the Jobs Knowledge Platform. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-jobs-datafinder/id557102462?mt=8

Poverty and Inequality DataFinder

• This app provides quick access to the latest poverty and inequality indicators for more than 120 developing countries. Visualize trends in charts and maps, explore the indicators in tables, and share them with friends and colleagues through email and social media. The Poverty Datafinder is useful to students, professors, researchers, development practitioners, and anyone looking to learn more about poverty and inequality in the developing world. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-poverty-inequality/id557157064?mt=8

Health Stats

• This app contains the most current Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) data for over 250 indicators and more than 200 countries and regional/income groups. The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s HNP statistics database, which includes topics such as health, HIV/AIDS, immunization, infectious diseases, medical resources and usage, nutrition, population dynamics, reproductive health, cause of death, non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation, with background information in poverty, labor force, economy and education. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-hnpstats-datafinder/id555291286?mt=8

New Data Portals/Websites

• The World Bank has developed new websites that are collections of freely available data and tools. They provide data dashboards on various topics and contain tables, charts, and maps as well as access to all the underlying data through our latest data visualization and sharing application, DataBank.

• Together with the IMF, the World Bank will continue to work on the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) which provides guidelines to the countries in the dissemination of economic, financial and socio-demographic data to the public and establishes a broad framework for countries seeking improvements in their statistical systems. The World Bank has developed guidelines for the preparation of metadata covering the following areas: population, education, health, poverty assessment and monitoring. The World Bank, as part of phase one of this project, in collaboration with the IMF, has been participating in regional seminars and in preparation of the GDDS metadata for participating countries, as well as providing technical support from headquarters or in the field to staff of member countries participating in the GDDS.

DDI

• Together with the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), the World Bank is advocating and supporting the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification (DDI Codebook) for the documentation and dissemination of microdata. In 2012, the data Group supported the development/upgrade of DDI-compliant software applications, including a DDI metadata editor and an open-source survey cataloguing tool (all available at www.ihsn.org). The software has been translated into French and Russian. These applications and related guidelines will be further developed in 2013.

Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)

• The World Bank has been working with the IMF on the Socio-demographic and Poverty modules of the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). The framework provides countries with a flexible structure for the qualitative assessment of various aspects of the statistical environment and infrastructure in which the data are collected, processed, and disseminated. It also identifies areas requiring technical assistance. The income poverty and education modules have been completed. Modules for health and population are under development.5.5 Technological resources (including standards for electronic data exchange and data sharing) (World Bank)

Statistical Information Collection and Processing

• The World Bank gathers macroeconomic data and projections at least once a year from its country teams in a process known as the Unified Survey. These data and projections are used for planning and evaluating Bank operations. They underlie work on creditworthiness and risk assessment and they are an important part of the Bank's external publications such as the World Development Indicators, the country and regional At-a-Glance tables, and Global Development Finance. These data are collected in a standardized way using the World Bank's country database system known as the Live Database (LDB). The LDB is an Excel based system which standardizes the management of macroeconomic information by organizing information into separate sheets by topic and utilizing indicator codes, common layouts, and a variety of formatting, calculation, and reporting tools.

• The Development Data Platform (DDP), a web-based statistical data collection and dissemination system has integrated and streamlined time-series data management operations at the Bank, and has established a comprehensive platform to support the statistical data collection and dissemination functions of the Bank. Also, the software can be provided to countries to further the goal of statistical capacity building in these countries. The software developed in this project may be installed in these countries.

• The Data Collection System (DCS), is an internal repository for time series data and metadata collection, validation, processing including aggregation to various regional and income based groupings. It is used internally for a wide variety of socio-economic, financial and other topical indicators. The DCS provides data to the DDP (described above). As a platform, DCS is also provided to other organizations which have similar needs for statistical time series data collection and processing.

• The system has also incorporated micro data from household surveys allowing cross-country comparisons on key indicators by welfare status.

SDMX

• The BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank have set up a partnership to focus on establishing web-based standards for more efficient exchange and sharing of statistical information and metadata, which is called SDMX. As part of this effort the Bank is currently chairing the Sponsor group and actively participating in the SDMX Secretariat activities. The Bank is also a part of the newly formed SDMX Technical working group. In the SDMX Global Conference hosted jointly by the Bank and IMF much headway was made, and as a follow up to the conference, a new SDMX Action plan was drafted creating a roadmap for SDMX until 2015. The Bank has now capability to accept data in SDMX format and also provides download of the popular WDI database in SDMX-ML format. The Bank also has a SDMX Version 2.1 compatible REST based API for users to query the WDI data. See http://sdmx.org/5.7 Technical cooperation and capacity building programmes (World Bank)

Statistical Capacity Building

Ongoing work

•The World Bank promotes statistical capacity building (SCB) mainly through financial instruments, advisory services, knowledge products, and partnerships. Our activities are centred around the implementation of the global action plans for statistics, the Marrakech Action Plans for Statistics (MAPS) and the more recent Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS. Main financial instruments are loans and grants. Lending projects are mostly long term and comprehensive in coverage. The projects typically aim at improved economic and social information for policy making and poverty reduction by strengthening planning, statistical legislations, infrastructure, human resources, data collection, processing, analyzing, archiving, and dissemination. A multi-country lending program, Statistical Capacity Building Program (STATCAP), became operational in 2004 to make investments in statistical development easier and more effective. It is designed to be simple to initiate, plan and operate.

• A $32 million loan under STATCAP for a statistical capacity building program in Ukraine was approved by the Bank's Executive Board in 2004, and will close by the end of 2012. The loan included finance for organizational and management reform, development of statistical infrastructure, modernization of computing infrastructure, technical assistance in various areas, and use of economic data in analysis and forecasting.

• In the Russian Federation as a part of the STATCAP facility a new $50 million Project for Development of the State Statistical System (STASYS 2) became effective in April 2008. The project is under implementation as a follow up to the STASYS project which was completed in December 2006. For the STASYS 2 Project, the World Bank finances 20% of the above amount to i) enforce further modernization of statistics methodology in compliance with the international standards; ii) strengthen development of modern design and technology for statistical data collection, processing, and dissemination; iii) ensure enhancement of social statistics, and iv) support human resource development in the statistical system. The World Bank and the Government of Russia is also in discussion regarding a large scale Reimbursable TA program.

• A $20 million loan under the STATCAP umbrella for Kazakhstan was approved by the World Bank in March 2011. The main objective of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the national statistical system to provide relevant, timely and reliable data in line with internationally accepted methodology and best practices. The project will upgrade the conceptual, methodological and analytical skills of the Kazakh Agency on Statistics of Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK) and other data producer and user agencies of the country. The loan agreement was signed in August 2011 and ratified by the Kazakh Parliament in December 2011. The project is currently under implementation.

• The World Bank manages a multi-donor Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB which aims to strengthen the capacity of statistical systems in developing countries. It supports: i) NSDS projects assisting the preparation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS); and ii) Statistical capacity improvement projects aiming at strengthening the capacity in key priority areas. TFSCB also funds participation of developing country representatives in meetings, seminars and workshops. TFSCB has financed below projects in the region that are under implementation.

• UNECE: Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries 2009-2011 $355,000.

• Russian Federation/CIS: The Need to Develop an Integrated System of Household Surveys to Collect Data on International Migration in the CIS States $320,000.

• A new Multi Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries has recently been established, with Russian Federation providing funding. ECASTAT’s overall objective is to address the capacity and financial constraints of the statistical systems of the countries in the region. ECASTAT will support the long-term process of improving development outcomes by strengthening the production of reliable and relevant data on a timely basis for evidence-based decision making at all levels of government in Eastern Europe and the CIS region. The trust fund will provide funding for regional as well as country specific projects, with a preference for low and lower-middle income countries. ECASTAT is expecting to allocate its first grants in early spring 2013.

• The World Bank maintains a web site on Statistical Capacity Building which provides information on the financial instruments, including STATCAP and TFSCB, advisory services, databases, and reference materials available in support of statistical capacity building. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/statcap.

• The World Bank has developed in the last three years the Virtual Statistical System which is an online resource for statisticians and users of statistics with information about how to manage statistical systems and how to make official statistics. The website includes a knowledge base and the VSS e-learning website called Modules for Strengthening Statistics. The site can be found at (www.virtualstatisticalsystem.org and www.statsys.org). The design of the site was an effort of working in partnership with several other international organizations and developed and developing countries.

• The Country Statistical Information Database provides information on national statistical systems useful for assessing statistical capacity and monitoring progress in statistical capacity building in developing countries. The database contains information encompassing various aspects of national statistical systems and operations, such as statistical law, national statistical strategy, statistical practice, censuses and surveys, national statistical agencies and publications, , and World Bank statistical projects. It also includes a country-level composite statistical capacity indicator based on evaluation of countries against a set of criteria in the areas of statistical practice, data collection and indicator availability, consistent with international recommendations. In addition, the database allows for cross-country comparisons of selected indicators. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/csid.html.

• The World Bank provides funding to PARIS21 from its development Grant Facility for the implementation of the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), jointly implemented with the World Bank Data Group. The ADP provides support to countries in the areas of microdata documentation, dissemination and preservation. The Russian Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was introduced to the software and practices promoted by the ADP.

• A web-based tool called the "Bulletin Board on Statistical Capacity (BBSC)" is available on the World Bank website. The tool aims to help strengthen the capacity of countries, especially IDA countries, to compile and use statistics with an overall aim of supporting the management of development results. Specifically, the BBSC: i) presents key information on national statistical systems collected from national and international sources, including planning, funding, human resources, census and surveys; ii) assesses countries' statistical capacity in key areas including institutional framework, statistical methodology, source data, data periodicity and timeliness through the use of a composite indicator, checklists, maps and charts; and iii) allows users to provide feedback and updates easily and quickly with interactive features. The BBSC is available online at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/bbsc.

Open Government

"The World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010, provides free, open and easy access to development data, and challenges the global community to use the data to create new solutions to reduce poverty. The World Bank is also responding to developing countries' demand for support to implement vibrant and sustainable open data initiatives. The Bank provides technical assistance and training tools for open data that can be used at the city, sector and national levels (see http://data.worldbank.org/open-government-data-toolkit). The Bank is engaged actively in countries such as Moldova, and providing on-demand advice to many other developing countries. By responding to these client demands, the World Bank Group promotes transparency, more efficient public service delivery, and innovation and economic growth. For instance, to enhance budget transparency and accountability, through instruments like BOOST the Bank is simultaneously helping authorities to better analyze, visualize and geo-map government spending for decision-making and making fiscal data more accessible to the public. Many other data driven applications have been created -and are publically available- as a result of Bank sponsored competitions (apps for development, apps for climate, apps for water and similar). The Bank’s openness agenda continues to gain momentum, eliminating barriers so that all stakeholders participate, collaborate, and innovate in democratizing development."

4.5 Dissemination, data warehousing (World Bank)

Dissemination

The Development Data Group of the World Bank uses the following systems for data retrieval and dissemination:

• As part of the World Bank's new open data initiative (ODI), the Bank launched a new website http://data.worldbank.org in April 2010 to provide free, open and easy access to over 8,000 indicators in four languages: English, Spanish, French Arabic and Chinese. Visitors to the site can easily find, download, manipulate, use, and re-use the data compiled by the World Bank, without restrictions. They can also take advantage of graph and mapping tools. Over the past year, more World Bank datasets, such as Climate Change, Projects and Operations, Finance and Microdata have been added to the data repositories that have joined the ODI. The site allows individuals, groups, and organizations to create applications, programs, visualizations, and other tools that will help monitor and measure progress of various development initiatives and projects. Additionally, the data can be used to create new and innovative solutions for international development, helping with the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty across the globe. One of the components of the new Open Data is the data retrieval system called the DataBank providing access to over 40 30 databases. Some of the links available from the DataBank on various topical databases include: - Gender at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=283; - Education at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=2&id=4&CNO=1159; - Health-Nutrition-Population HNPStats at http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=311; - Etc.

• The Gateway initiative is envisioned as a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience http://www.developmentgateway.org/.

• As part of the World Bank's new Access to Information Policy and building on the success of the Open Data initiative the Mapping for Results Platform was by the World Bank Institute and AidData in partnership with various World Bank departments (AFTSD, LCSDE, DECDG, OPCS) to geo-reference and visualize the geographic location of World Bank financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level. See http://maps.worldbank.org/.

• The World Bank Microdata Library (http://microdata.worldbank.org) provides access to survey and census data and metadata. The number of surveys and censuses listed in this catalog is expected to grow significantly in 2012. . The Microdata Library will keep expanding in 2013.

• Data Visualizer is a tool creating animated charts using the most widely used and official development data. New tools and emerging techniques are providing new opportunities for visualizing data and making it more interesting to users. Adding animation to this only increases its impact. To use this new tool, see http://devdata.worldbank.org/DataVisualizer/.

DataFinder apps

• The new version of the World Bank's DataFinder 3,0 is now available on three platforms - iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. This application is part of the World Bank's Open Data Initiative to make development data more accessible and easier to use. This is an offline application and does not require a 3G or WiFi connection to the World Bank's Open Data website. Users can are presented with a pre-selected set of indicators for a country/country grouping or for a thematic topic (e.g. environment, gender, trade etc.). Data can be charted or viewed on an animated map. Users can also compare indicators for two countries. All tables, charts, maps can be shared via email or via social media software such Facebook and Twitter. the new DataFinder 3.0 has an Advanced Query Feature that allows users to create their own data tables and charts from 50 years of World Bank data on more than 1,100 global social and economic indicators for over 200 countries/economies and country groups - all of which can be used in presentations, projects, and shared via email. it also contains improved visualizations including a map with zoom-in features. Since the launch of the first DataFinder application, major improvements have been made, including the ability to switch between tables, lines and bar charts; view data in tabular forms; display charts with more than one country and more than one indicator; navigate forward/backward between countries and indicators, etc. will be downloadable in 2012 from Apple, Google and the Blackberry stores. For more information, see http://data.worldbank.org/apps

WDI DataFinder

• A full app gives access to all indicators from WDI database, which include topic such as the Economy, Environment, Gender, Health, Population, Infrastructure, Private Sector Development, Trade, etc. This app is available in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-datafinder/id349081196?mt=8

EdStats DataFinder

• The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s education statistics database, which includes over 2,000 indicators on topics such as enrollment, completion, learning outcomes, education expenditures, teaches, and pre-primary to tertiary education. App users can access education data by country, topic, or indicator, and view the resulting data in tables, charts, or maps that can be easily shared though email, Facebook, and Twitter. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-edstats-datafinder/id467566445?mt=8

Jobs DataFinder

• The app provides easy access to global development indicators on employments, human capital and skills, labor market institutions and the business environment. Its collection of development indicators is compiled from officially-recognized international sources and represents the most recent and accurate data on these topics. The data is shared through the World Bank’s Open Data Initiative and is supported by the Jobs Knowledge Platform. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-jobs-datafinder/id557102462?mt=8

Poverty and Inequality DataFinder

• This app provides quick access to the latest poverty and inequality indicators for more than 120 developing countries. Visualize trends in charts and maps, explore the indicators in tables, and share them with friends and colleagues through email and social media. The Poverty Datafinder is useful to students, professors, researchers, development practitioners, and anyone looking to learn more about poverty and inequality in the developing world. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-poverty-inequality/id557157064?mt=8

Health Stats

• This app contains the most current Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) data for over 250 indicators and more than 200 countries and regional/income groups. The app gives users mobile access to the World Bank’s HNP statistics database, which includes topics such as health, HIV/AIDS, immunization, infectious diseases, medical resources and usage, nutrition, population dynamics, reproductive health, cause of death, non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation, with background information in poverty, labor force, economy and education. To download, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-bank-hnpstats-datafinder/id555291286?mt=8

New Data Portals/Websites

• The World Bank has developed new websites that are collections of freely available data and tools. They provide data dashboards on various topics and contain tables, charts, and maps as well as access to all the underlying data through our latest data visualization and sharing application, DataBank.

• Together with the IMF, the World Bank will continue to work on the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) which provides guidelines to the countries in the dissemination of economic, financial and socio-demographic data to the public and establishes a broad framework for countries seeking improvements in their statistical systems. The World Bank has developed guidelines for the preparation of metadata covering the following areas: population, education, health, poverty assessment and monitoring. The World Bank, as part of phase one of this project, in collaboration with the IMF, has been participating in regional seminars and in preparation of the GDDS metadata for participating countries, as well as providing technical support from headquarters or in the field to staff of member countries participating in the GDDS.

• For WITS and Trade visualizers, see section 2.6.

5. Strategic and managerial issues of official statistics (World Bank)1. Demographic and social statistics (World Bank)5.3 Quality frameworks and measurement of performance of statistical systems and offices (World Bank)

Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)

• The World Bank has been working with the IMF on the Socio-demographic and Poverty modules of the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). The framework provides countries with a flexible structure for the qualitative assessment of various aspects of the statistical environment and infrastructure in which the data are collected, processed, and disseminated. It also identifies areas requiring technical assistance. The income poverty and education modules have been completed. Modules for health and population are under development.

Statistical Information Collection and Processing

• The World Bank gathers macroeconomic data and projections at least once a year from its country teams in a process known as the Unified Survey. These data and projections are used for planning and evaluating Bank operations. They underlie work on creditworthiness and risk assessment and they are an important part of the Bank's external publications such as the World Development Indicators, the country and regional At-a-Glance tables, and Global Development Finance. These data are collected in a standardized way using the World Bank's country database system known as the Live Database (LDB). The LDB is an Excel based system which standardizes the management of macroeconomic information by organizing information into separate sheets by topic and utilizing indicator codes, common layouts, and a variety of formatting, calculation, and reporting tools.

• The Development Data Platform (DDP), a web-based statistical data collection and dissemination system has integrated and streamlined time-series data management operations at the Bank, and has established a comprehensive platform to support the statistical data collection and dissemination functions of the Bank. Also, the software can be provided to countries to further the goal of statistical capacity building in these countries. The software developed in this project may be installed in these countries.

• The Data Collection System (DCS), is an internal repository for time series data and metadata collection, validation, processing including aggregation to various regional and income based groupings. It is used internally for a wide variety of socio-economic, financial and other topical indicators. The DCS provides data to the DDP (described above). As a platform, DCS is also provided to other organizations which have similar needs for statistical time series data collection and processing.

• The system has also incorporated micro data from household surveys allowing cross-country comparisons on key indicators by welfare status.

SDMX

• The BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank have set up a partnership to focus on establishing web-based standards for more efficient exchange and sharing of statistical information and metadata, which is called SDMX. As part of this effort the Bank is currently chairing the Sponsor group and actively participating in the SDMX Secretariat activities. The Bank is also a part of the newly formed SDMX Technical working group. In the SDMX Global Conference hosted jointly by the Bank and IMF much headway was made, and as a follow up to the conference, a new SDMX Action plan was drafted creating a roadmap for SDMX until 2015. The Bank has now capability to accept data in SDMX format and also provides download of the popular WDI database in SDMX-ML format. The Bank also has a SDMX Version 2.1 compatible REST based API for users to query the WDI data. See http://sdmx.org/

Statistical Capacity Building

Ongoing work

•The World Bank promotes statistical capacity building (SCB) mainly through financial instruments, advisory services, knowledge products, and partnerships. Our activities are centred around the implementation of the global action plans for statistics, the Marrakech Action Plans for Statistics (MAPS) and the more recent Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS. Main financial instruments are loans and grants. Lending projects are mostly long term and comprehensive in coverage. The projects typically aim at improved economic and social information for policy making and poverty reduction by strengthening planning, statistical legislations, infrastructure, human resources, data collection, processing, analyzing, archiving, and dissemination. A multi-country lending program, Statistical Capacity Building Program (STATCAP), became operational in 2004 to make investments in statistical development easier and more effective. It is designed to be simple to initiate, plan and operate.

• A $32 million loan under STATCAP for a statistical capacity building program in Ukraine was approved by the Bank's Executive Board in 2004, and will close by the end of 2012. The loan included finance for organizational and management reform, development of statistical infrastructure, modernization of computing infrastructure, technical assistance in various areas, and use of economic data in analysis and forecasting.

• In the Russian Federation as a part of the STATCAP facility a new $50 million Project for Development of the State Statistical System (STASYS 2) became effective in April 2008. The project is under implementation as a follow up to the STASYS project which was completed in December 2006. For the STASYS 2 Project, the World Bank finances 20% of the above amount to i) enforce further modernization of statistics methodology in compliance with the international standards; ii) strengthen development of modern design and technology for statistical data collection, processing, and dissemination; iii) ensure enhancement of social statistics, and iv) support human resource development in the statistical system. The World Bank and the Government of Russia is also in discussion regarding a large scale Reimbursable TA program.

• A $20 million loan under the STATCAP umbrella for Kazakhstan was approved by the World Bank in March 2011. The main objective of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the national statistical system to provide relevant, timely and reliable data in line with internationally accepted methodology and best practices. The project will upgrade the conceptual, methodological and analytical skills of the Kazakh Agency on Statistics of Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK) and other data producer and user agencies of the country. The loan agreement was signed in August 2011 and ratified by the Kazakh Parliament in December 2011. The project is currently under implementation.

• The World Bank manages a multi-donor Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB which aims to strengthen the capacity of statistical systems in developing countries. It supports: i) NSDS projects assisting the preparation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS); and ii) Statistical capacity improvement projects aiming at strengthening the capacity in key priority areas. TFSCB also funds participation of developing country representatives in meetings, seminars and workshops. TFSCB has financed below projects in the region that are under implementation.

• UNECE: Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries 2009-2011 $355,000.

• Russian Federation/CIS: The Need to Develop an Integrated System of Household Surveys to Collect Data on International Migration in the CIS States $320,000.

• A new Multi Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries has recently been established, with Russian Federation providing funding. ECASTAT’s overall objective is to address the capacity and financial constraints of the statistical systems of the countries in the region. ECASTAT will support the long-term process of improving development outcomes by strengthening the production of reliable and relevant data on a timely basis for evidence-based decision making at all levels of government in Eastern Europe and the CIS region. The trust fund will provide funding for regional as well as country specific projects, with a preference for low and lower-middle income countries. ECASTAT is expecting to allocate its first grants in early spring 2013.

• The World Bank maintains a web site on Statistical Capacity Building which provides information on the financial instruments, including STATCAP and TFSCB, advisory services, databases, and reference materials available in support of statistical capacity building. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/statcap.

• The World Bank has developed in the last three years the Virtual Statistical System which is an online resource for statisticians and users of statistics with information about how to manage statistical systems and how to make official statistics. The website includes a knowledge base and the VSS e-learning website called Modules for Strengthening Statistics. The site can be found at (www.virtualstatisticalsystem.org and www.statsys.org). The design of the site was an effort of working in partnership with several other international organizations and developed and developing countries.

• The Country Statistical Information Database provides information on national statistical systems useful for assessing statistical capacity and monitoring progress in statistical capacity building in developing countries. The database contains information encompassing various aspects of national statistical systems and operations, such as statistical law, national statistical strategy, statistical practice, censuses and surveys, national statistical agencies and publications, , and World Bank statistical projects. It also includes a country-level composite statistical capacity indicator based on evaluation of countries against a set of criteria in the areas of statistical practice, data collection and indicator availability, consistent with international recommendations. In addition, the database allows for cross-country comparisons of selected indicators. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/csid.html.

• The World Bank provides funding to PARIS21 from its development Grant Facility for the implementation of the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), jointly implemented with the World Bank Data Group. The ADP provides support to countries in the areas of microdata documentation, dissemination and preservation. The Russian Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was introduced to the software and practices promoted by the ADP.

• A web-based tool called the "Bulletin Board on Statistical Capacity (BBSC)" is available on the World Bank website. The tool aims to help strengthen the capacity of countries, especially IDA countries, to compile and use statistics with an overall aim of supporting the management of development results. Specifically, the BBSC: i) presents key information on national statistical systems collected from national and international sources, including planning, funding, human resources, census and surveys; ii) assesses countries' statistical capacity in key areas including institutional framework, statistical methodology, source data, data periodicity and timeliness through the use of a composite indicator, checklists, maps and charts; and iii) allows users to provide feedback and updates easily and quickly with interactive features. The BBSC is available online at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/bbsc.

Open Government

"The World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010, provides free, open and easy access to development data, and challenges the global community to use the data to create new solutions to reduce poverty. The World Bank is also responding to developing countries' demand for support to implement vibrant and sustainable open data initiatives. The Bank provides technical assistance and training tools for open data that can be used at the city, sector and national levels (see http://data.worldbank.org/open-government-data-toolkit). The Bank is engaged actively in countries such as Moldova, and providing on-demand advice to many other developing countries. By responding to these client demands, the World Bank Group promotes transparency, more efficient public service delivery, and innovation and economic growth. For instance, to enhance budget transparency and accountability, through instruments like BOOST the Bank is simultaneously helping authorities to better analyze, visualize and geo-map government spending for decision-making and making fiscal data more accessible to the public. Many other data driven applications have been created -and are publically available- as a result of Bank sponsored competitions (apps for development, apps for climate, apps for water and similar). The Bank’s openness agenda continues to gain momentum, eliminating barriers so that all stakeholders participate, collaborate, and innovate in democratizing development."

Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)

• The World Bank has been working with the IMF on the Socio-demographic and Poverty modules of the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). The framework provides countries with a flexible structure for the qualitative assessment of various aspects of the statistical environment and infrastructure in which the data are collected, processed, and disseminated. It also identifies areas requiring technical assistance. The income poverty and education modules have been completed. Modules for health and population are under development.

Statistical Information Collection and Processing

• The World Bank gathers macroeconomic data and projections at least once a year from its country teams in a process known as the Unified Survey. These data and projections are used for planning and evaluating Bank operations. They underlie work on creditworthiness and risk assessment and they are an important part of the Bank's external publications such as the World Development Indicators, the country and regional At-a-Glance tables, and Global Development Finance. These data are collected in a standardized way using the World Bank's country database system known as the Live Database (LDB). The LDB is an Excel based system which standardizes the management of macroeconomic information by organizing information into separate sheets by topic and utilizing indicator codes, common layouts, and a variety of formatting, calculation, and reporting tools.

• The Development Data Platform (DDP), a web-based statistical data collection and dissemination system has integrated and streamlined time-series data management operations at the Bank, and has established a comprehensive platform to support the statistical data collection and dissemination functions of the Bank. Also, the software can be provided to countries to further the goal of statistical capacity building in these countries. The software developed in this project may be installed in these countries.

• The Data Collection System (DCS), is an internal repository for time series data and metadata collection, validation, processing including aggregation to various regional and income based groupings. It is used internally for a wide variety of socio-economic, financial and other topical indicators. The DCS provides data to the DDP (described above). As a platform, DCS is also provided to other organizations which have similar needs for statistical time series data collection and processing.

• The system has also incorporated micro data from household surveys allowing cross-country comparisons on key indicators by welfare status.

SDMX

• The BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank have set up a partnership to focus on establishing web-based standards for more efficient exchange and sharing of statistical information and metadata, which is called SDMX. As part of this effort the Bank is currently chairing the Sponsor group and actively participating in the SDMX Secretariat activities. The Bank is also a part of the newly formed SDMX Technical working group. In the SDMX Global Conference hosted jointly by the Bank and IMF much headway was made, and as a follow up to the conference, a new SDMX Action plan was drafted creating a roadmap for SDMX until 2015. The Bank has now capability to accept data in SDMX format and also provides download of the popular WDI database in SDMX-ML format. The Bank also has a SDMX Version 2.1 compatible REST based API for users to query the WDI data. See http://sdmx.org/

Statistical Capacity Building

Ongoing work

•The World Bank promotes statistical capacity building (SCB) mainly through financial instruments, advisory services, knowledge products, and partnerships. Our activities are centred around the implementation of the global action plans for statistics, the Marrakech Action Plans for Statistics (MAPS) and the more recent Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS. Main financial instruments are loans and grants. Lending projects are mostly long term and comprehensive in coverage. The projects typically aim at improved economic and social information for policy making and poverty reduction by strengthening planning, statistical legislations, infrastructure, human resources, data collection, processing, analyzing, archiving, and dissemination. A multi-country lending program, Statistical Capacity Building Program (STATCAP), became operational in 2004 to make investments in statistical development easier and more effective. It is designed to be simple to initiate, plan and operate.

• A $32 million loan under STATCAP for a statistical capacity building program in Ukraine was approved by the Bank's Executive Board in 2004, and will close by the end of 2012. The loan included finance for organizational and management reform, development of statistical infrastructure, modernization of computing infrastructure, technical assistance in various areas, and use of economic data in analysis and forecasting.

• In the Russian Federation as a part of the STATCAP facility a new $50 million Project for Development of the State Statistical System (STASYS 2) became effective in April 2008. The project is under implementation as a follow up to the STASYS project which was completed in December 2006. For the STASYS 2 Project, the World Bank finances 20% of the above amount to i) enforce further modernization of statistics methodology in compliance with the international standards; ii) strengthen development of modern design and technology for statistical data collection, processing, and dissemination; iii) ensure enhancement of social statistics, and iv) support human resource development in the statistical system. The World Bank and the Government of Russia is also in discussion regarding a large scale Reimbursable TA program.

• A $20 million loan under the STATCAP umbrella for Kazakhstan was approved by the World Bank in March 2011. The main objective of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the national statistical system to provide relevant, timely and reliable data in line with internationally accepted methodology and best practices. The project will upgrade the conceptual, methodological and analytical skills of the Kazakh Agency on Statistics of Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK) and other data producer and user agencies of the country. The loan agreement was signed in August 2011 and ratified by the Kazakh Parliament in December 2011. The project is currently under implementation.

• The World Bank manages a multi-donor Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB which aims to strengthen the capacity of statistical systems in developing countries. It supports: i) NSDS projects assisting the preparation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS); and ii) Statistical capacity improvement projects aiming at strengthening the capacity in key priority areas. TFSCB also funds participation of developing country representatives in meetings, seminars and workshops. TFSCB has financed below projects in the region that are under implementation.

• UNECE: Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries 2009-2011 $355,000.

• Russian Federation/CIS: The Need to Develop an Integrated System of Household Surveys to Collect Data on International Migration in the CIS States $320,000.

• A new Multi Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries has recently been established, with Russian Federation providing funding. ECASTAT’s overall objective is to address the capacity and financial constraints of the statistical systems of the countries in the region. ECASTAT will support the long-term process of improving development outcomes by strengthening the production of reliable and relevant data on a timely basis for evidence-based decision making at all levels of government in Eastern Europe and the CIS region. The trust fund will provide funding for regional as well as country specific projects, with a preference for low and lower-middle income countries. ECASTAT is expecting to allocate its first grants in early spring 2013.

• The World Bank maintains a web site on Statistical Capacity Building which provides information on the financial instruments, including STATCAP and TFSCB, advisory services, databases, and reference materials available in support of statistical capacity building. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/statcap.

• The World Bank has developed in the last three years the Virtual Statistical System which is an online resource for statisticians and users of statistics with information about how to manage statistical systems and how to make official statistics. The website includes a knowledge base and the VSS e-learning website called Modules for Strengthening Statistics. The site can be found at (www.virtualstatisticalsystem.org and www.statsys.org). The design of the site was an effort of working in partnership with several other international organizations and developed and developing countries.

• The Country Statistical Information Database provides information on national statistical systems useful for assessing statistical capacity and monitoring progress in statistical capacity building in developing countries. The database contains information encompassing various aspects of national statistical systems and operations, such as statistical law, national statistical strategy, statistical practice, censuses and surveys, national statistical agencies and publications, , and World Bank statistical projects. It also includes a country-level composite statistical capacity indicator based on evaluation of countries against a set of criteria in the areas of statistical practice, data collection and indicator availability, consistent with international recommendations. In addition, the database allows for cross-country comparisons of selected indicators. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/csid.html.

• The World Bank provides funding to PARIS21 from its development Grant Facility for the implementation of the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), jointly implemented with the World Bank Data Group. The ADP provides support to countries in the areas of microdata documentation, dissemination and preservation. The Russian Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was introduced to the software and practices promoted by the ADP.

• A web-based tool called the "Bulletin Board on Statistical Capacity (BBSC)" is available on the World Bank website. The tool aims to help strengthen the capacity of countries, especially IDA countries, to compile and use statistics with an overall aim of supporting the management of development results. Specifically, the BBSC: i) presents key information on national statistical systems collected from national and international sources, including planning, funding, human resources, census and surveys; ii) assesses countries' statistical capacity in key areas including institutional framework, statistical methodology, source data, data periodicity and timeliness through the use of a composite indicator, checklists, maps and charts; and iii) allows users to provide feedback and updates easily and quickly with interactive features. The BBSC is available online at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/bbsc.

Open Government

"The World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010, provides free, open and easy access to development data, and challenges the global community to use the data to create new solutions to reduce poverty. The World Bank is also responding to developing countries' demand for support to implement vibrant and sustainable open data initiatives. The Bank provides technical assistance and training tools for open data that can be used at the city, sector and national levels (see http://data.worldbank.org/open-government-data-toolkit). The Bank is engaged actively in countries such as Moldova, and providing on-demand advice to many other developing countries. By responding to these client demands, the World Bank Group promotes transparency, more efficient public service delivery, and innovation and economic growth. For instance, to enhance budget transparency and accountability, through instruments like BOOST the Bank is simultaneously helping authorities to better analyze, visualize and geo-map government spending for decision-making and making fiscal data more accessible to the public. Many other data driven applications have been created -and are publically available- as a result of Bank sponsored competitions (apps for development, apps for climate, apps for water and similar). The Bank’s openness agenda continues to gain momentum, eliminating barriers so that all stakeholders participate, collaborate, and innovate in democratizing development."

Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)

• The World Bank has been working with the IMF on the Socio-demographic and Poverty modules of the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). The framework provides countries with a flexible structure for the qualitative assessment of various aspects of the statistical environment and infrastructure in which the data are collected, processed, and disseminated. It also identifies areas requiring technical assistance. The income poverty and education modules have been completed. Modules for health and population are under development.

Statistical Information Collection and Processing

• The World Bank gathers macroeconomic data and projections at least once a year from its country teams in a process known as the Unified Survey. These data and projections are used for planning and evaluating Bank operations. They underlie work on creditworthiness and risk assessment and they are an important part of the Bank's external publications such as the World Development Indicators, the country and regional At-a-Glance tables, and Global Development Finance. These data are collected in a standardized way using the World Bank's country database system known as the Live Database (LDB). The LDB is an Excel based system which standardizes the management of macroeconomic information by organizing information into separate sheets by topic and utilizing indicator codes, common layouts, and a variety of formatting, calculation, and reporting tools.

• The Development Data Platform (DDP), a web-based statistical data collection and dissemination system has integrated and streamlined time-series data management operations at the Bank, and has established a comprehensive platform to support the statistical data collection and dissemination functions of the Bank. Also, the software can be provided to countries to further the goal of statistical capacity building in these countries. The software developed in this project may be installed in these countries.

• The Data Collection System (DCS), is an internal repository for time series data and metadata collection, validation, processing including aggregation to various regional and income based groupings. It is used internally for a wide variety of socio-economic, financial and other topical indicators. The DCS provides data to the DDP (described above). As a platform, DCS is also provided to other organizations which have similar needs for statistical time series data collection and processing.

• The system has also incorporated micro data from household surveys allowing cross-country comparisons on key indicators by welfare status.

SDMX

• The BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank have set up a partnership to focus on establishing web-based standards for more efficient exchange and sharing of statistical information and metadata, which is called SDMX. As part of this effort the Bank is currently chairing the Sponsor group and actively participating in the SDMX Secretariat activities. The Bank is also a part of the newly formed SDMX Technical working group. In the SDMX Global Conference hosted jointly by the Bank and IMF much headway was made, and as a follow up to the conference, a new SDMX Action plan was drafted creating a roadmap for SDMX until 2015. The Bank has now capability to accept data in SDMX format and also provides download of the popular WDI database in SDMX-ML format. The Bank also has a SDMX Version 2.1 compatible REST based API for users to query the WDI data. See http://sdmx.org/

Statistical Capacity Building

Ongoing work

•The World Bank promotes statistical capacity building (SCB) mainly through financial instruments, advisory services, knowledge products, and partnerships. Our activities are centred around the implementation of the global action plans for statistics, the Marrakech Action Plans for Statistics (MAPS) and the more recent Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS. Main financial instruments are loans and grants. Lending projects are mostly long term and comprehensive in coverage. The projects typically aim at improved economic and social information for policy making and poverty reduction by strengthening planning, statistical legislations, infrastructure, human resources, data collection, processing, analyzing, archiving, and dissemination. A multi-country lending program, Statistical Capacity Building Program (STATCAP), became operational in 2004 to make investments in statistical development easier and more effective. It is designed to be simple to initiate, plan and operate.

• A $32 million loan under STATCAP for a statistical capacity building program in Ukraine was approved by the Bank's Executive Board in 2004, and will close by the end of 2012. The loan included finance for organizational and management reform, development of statistical infrastructure, modernization of computing infrastructure, technical assistance in various areas, and use of economic data in analysis and forecasting.

• In the Russian Federation as a part of the STATCAP facility a new $50 million Project for Development of the State Statistical System (STASYS 2) became effective in April 2008. The project is under implementation as a follow up to the STASYS project which was completed in December 2006. For the STASYS 2 Project, the World Bank finances 20% of the above amount to i) enforce further modernization of statistics methodology in compliance with the international standards; ii) strengthen development of modern design and technology for statistical data collection, processing, and dissemination; iii) ensure enhancement of social statistics, and iv) support human resource development in the statistical system. The World Bank and the Government of Russia is also in discussion regarding a large scale Reimbursable TA program.

• A $20 million loan under the STATCAP umbrella for Kazakhstan was approved by the World Bank in March 2011. The main objective of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the national statistical system to provide relevant, timely and reliable data in line with internationally accepted methodology and best practices. The project will upgrade the conceptual, methodological and analytical skills of the Kazakh Agency on Statistics of Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK) and other data producer and user agencies of the country. The loan agreement was signed in August 2011 and ratified by the Kazakh Parliament in December 2011. The project is currently under implementation.

• The World Bank manages a multi-donor Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB which aims to strengthen the capacity of statistical systems in developing countries. It supports: i) NSDS projects assisting the preparation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS); and ii) Statistical capacity improvement projects aiming at strengthening the capacity in key priority areas. TFSCB also funds participation of developing country representatives in meetings, seminars and workshops. TFSCB has financed below projects in the region that are under implementation.

• UNECE: Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries 2009-2011 $355,000.

• Russian Federation/CIS: The Need to Develop an Integrated System of Household Surveys to Collect Data on International Migration in the CIS States $320,000.

• A new Multi Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries has recently been established, with Russian Federation providing funding. ECASTAT’s overall objective is to address the capacity and financial constraints of the statistical systems of the countries in the region. ECASTAT will support the long-term process of improving development outcomes by strengthening the production of reliable and relevant data on a timely basis for evidence-based decision making at all levels of government in Eastern Europe and the CIS region. The trust fund will provide funding for regional as well as country specific projects, with a preference for low and lower-middle income countries. ECASTAT is expecting to allocate its first grants in early spring 2013.

• The World Bank maintains a web site on Statistical Capacity Building which provides information on the financial instruments, including STATCAP and TFSCB, advisory services, databases, and reference materials available in support of statistical capacity building. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/statcap.

• The World Bank has developed in the last three years the Virtual Statistical System which is an online resource for statisticians and users of statistics with information about how to manage statistical systems and how to make official statistics. The website includes a knowledge base and the VSS e-learning website called Modules for Strengthening Statistics. The site can be found at (www.virtualstatisticalsystem.org and www.statsys.org). The design of the site was an effort of working in partnership with several other international organizations and developed and developing countries.

• The Country Statistical Information Database provides information on national statistical systems useful for assessing statistical capacity and monitoring progress in statistical capacity building in developing countries. The database contains information encompassing various aspects of national statistical systems and operations, such as statistical law, national statistical strategy, statistical practice, censuses and surveys, national statistical agencies and publications, , and World Bank statistical projects. It also includes a country-level composite statistical capacity indicator based on evaluation of countries against a set of criteria in the areas of statistical practice, data collection and indicator availability, consistent with international recommendations. In addition, the database allows for cross-country comparisons of selected indicators. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/csid.html.

• The World Bank provides funding to PARIS21 from its development Grant Facility for the implementation of the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), jointly implemented with the World Bank Data Group. The ADP provides support to countries in the areas of microdata documentation, dissemination and preservation. The Russian Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was introduced to the software and practices promoted by the ADP.

• A web-based tool called the "Bulletin Board on Statistical Capacity (BBSC)" is available on the World Bank website. The tool aims to help strengthen the capacity of countries, especially IDA countries, to compile and use statistics with an overall aim of supporting the management of development results. Specifically, the BBSC: i) presents key information on national statistical systems collected from national and international sources, including planning, funding, human resources, census and surveys; ii) assesses countries' statistical capacity in key areas including institutional framework, statistical methodology, source data, data periodicity and timeliness through the use of a composite indicator, checklists, maps and charts; and iii) allows users to provide feedback and updates easily and quickly with interactive features. The BBSC is available online at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/bbsc.

Open Government

"The World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010, provides free, open and easy access to development data, and challenges the global community to use the data to create new solutions to reduce poverty. The World Bank is also responding to developing countries' demand for support to implement vibrant and sustainable open data initiatives. The Bank provides technical assistance and training tools for open data that can be used at the city, sector and national levels (see http://data.worldbank.org/open-government-data-toolkit). The Bank is engaged actively in countries such as Moldova, and providing on-demand advice to many other developing countries. By responding to these client demands, the World Bank Group promotes transparency, more efficient public service delivery, and innovation and economic growth. For instance, to enhance budget transparency and accountability, through instruments like BOOST the Bank is simultaneously helping authorities to better analyze, visualize and geo-map government spending for decision-making and making fiscal data more accessible to the public. Many other data driven applications have been created -and are publically available- as a result of Bank sponsored competitions (apps for development, apps for climate, apps for water and similar). The Bank’s openness agenda continues to gain momentum, eliminating barriers so that all stakeholders participate, collaborate, and innovate in democratizing development."

Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)

• The World Bank has been working with the IMF on the Socio-demographic and Poverty modules of the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). The framework provides countries with a flexible structure for the qualitative assessment of various aspects of the statistical environment and infrastructure in which the data are collected, processed, and disseminated. It also identifies areas requiring technical assistance. The income poverty and education modules have been completed. Modules for health and population are under development.

Statistical Information Collection and Processing

• The World Bank gathers macroeconomic data and projections at least once a year from its country teams in a process known as the Unified Survey. These data and projections are used for planning and evaluating Bank operations. They underlie work on creditworthiness and risk assessment and they are an important part of the Bank's external publications such as the World Development Indicators, the country and regional At-a-Glance tables, and Global Development Finance. These data are collected in a standardized way using the World Bank's country database system known as the Live Database (LDB). The LDB is an Excel based system which standardizes the management of macroeconomic information by organizing information into separate sheets by topic and utilizing indicator codes, common layouts, and a variety of formatting, calculation, and reporting tools.

• The Development Data Platform (DDP), a web-based statistical data collection and dissemination system has integrated and streamlined time-series data management operations at the Bank, and has established a comprehensive platform to support the statistical data collection and dissemination functions of the Bank. Also, the software can be provided to countries to further the goal of statistical capacity building in these countries. The software developed in this project may be installed in these countries.

• The Data Collection System (DCS), is an internal repository for time series data and metadata collection, validation, processing including aggregation to various regional and income based groupings. It is used internally for a wide variety of socio-economic, financial and other topical indicators. The DCS provides data to the DDP (described above). As a platform, DCS is also provided to other organizations which have similar needs for statistical time series data collection and processing.

• The system has also incorporated micro data from household surveys allowing cross-country comparisons on key indicators by welfare status.

SDMX

• The BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank have set up a partnership to focus on establishing web-based standards for more efficient exchange and sharing of statistical information and metadata, which is called SDMX. As part of this effort the Bank is currently chairing the Sponsor group and actively participating in the SDMX Secretariat activities. The Bank is also a part of the newly formed SDMX Technical working group. In the SDMX Global Conference hosted jointly by the Bank and IMF much headway was made, and as a follow up to the conference, a new SDMX Action plan was drafted creating a roadmap for SDMX until 2015. The Bank has now capability to accept data in SDMX format and also provides download of the popular WDI database in SDMX-ML format. The Bank also has a SDMX Version 2.1 compatible REST based API for users to query the WDI data. See http://sdmx.org/

Statistical Capacity Building

Ongoing work

•The World Bank promotes statistical capacity building (SCB) mainly through financial instruments, advisory services, knowledge products, and partnerships. Our activities are centred around the implementation of the global action plans for statistics, the Marrakech Action Plans for Statistics (MAPS) and the more recent Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS. Main financial instruments are loans and grants. Lending projects are mostly long term and comprehensive in coverage. The projects typically aim at improved economic and social information for policy making and poverty reduction by strengthening planning, statistical legislations, infrastructure, human resources, data collection, processing, analyzing, archiving, and dissemination. A multi-country lending program, Statistical Capacity Building Program (STATCAP), became operational in 2004 to make investments in statistical development easier and more effective. It is designed to be simple to initiate, plan and operate.

• A $32 million loan under STATCAP for a statistical capacity building program in Ukraine was approved by the Bank's Executive Board in 2004, and will close by the end of 2012. The loan included finance for organizational and management reform, development of statistical infrastructure, modernization of computing infrastructure, technical assistance in various areas, and use of economic data in analysis and forecasting.

• In the Russian Federation as a part of the STATCAP facility a new $50 million Project for Development of the State Statistical System (STASYS 2) became effective in April 2008. The project is under implementation as a follow up to the STASYS project which was completed in December 2006. For the STASYS 2 Project, the World Bank finances 20% of the above amount to i) enforce further modernization of statistics methodology in compliance with the international standards; ii) strengthen development of modern design and technology for statistical data collection, processing, and dissemination; iii) ensure enhancement of social statistics, and iv) support human resource development in the statistical system. The World Bank and the Government of Russia is also in discussion regarding a large scale Reimbursable TA program.

• A $20 million loan under the STATCAP umbrella for Kazakhstan was approved by the World Bank in March 2011. The main objective of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the national statistical system to provide relevant, timely and reliable data in line with internationally accepted methodology and best practices. The project will upgrade the conceptual, methodological and analytical skills of the Kazakh Agency on Statistics of Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK) and other data producer and user agencies of the country. The loan agreement was signed in August 2011 and ratified by the Kazakh Parliament in December 2011. The project is currently under implementation.

• The World Bank manages a multi-donor Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB which aims to strengthen the capacity of statistical systems in developing countries. It supports: i) NSDS projects assisting the preparation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS); and ii) Statistical capacity improvement projects aiming at strengthening the capacity in key priority areas. TFSCB also funds participation of developing country representatives in meetings, seminars and workshops. TFSCB has financed below projects in the region that are under implementation.

• UNECE: Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries 2009-2011 $355,000.

• Russian Federation/CIS: The Need to Develop an Integrated System of Household Surveys to Collect Data on International Migration in the CIS States $320,000.

• A new Multi Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries has recently been established, with Russian Federation providing funding. ECASTAT’s overall objective is to address the capacity and financial constraints of the statistical systems of the countries in the region. ECASTAT will support the long-term process of improving development outcomes by strengthening the production of reliable and relevant data on a timely basis for evidence-based decision making at all levels of government in Eastern Europe and the CIS region. The trust fund will provide funding for regional as well as country specific projects, with a preference for low and lower-middle income countries. ECASTAT is expecting to allocate its first grants in early spring 2013.

• The World Bank maintains a web site on Statistical Capacity Building which provides information on the financial instruments, including STATCAP and TFSCB, advisory services, databases, and reference materials available in support of statistical capacity building. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/statcap.

• The World Bank has developed in the last three years the Virtual Statistical System which is an online resource for statisticians and users of statistics with information about how to manage statistical systems and how to make official statistics. The website includes a knowledge base and the VSS e-learning website called Modules for Strengthening Statistics. The site can be found at (www.virtualstatisticalsystem.org and www.statsys.org). The design of the site was an effort of working in partnership with several other international organizations and developed and developing countries.

• The Country Statistical Information Database provides information on national statistical systems useful for assessing statistical capacity and monitoring progress in statistical capacity building in developing countries. The database contains information encompassing various aspects of national statistical systems and operations, such as statistical law, national statistical strategy, statistical practice, censuses and surveys, national statistical agencies and publications, , and World Bank statistical projects. It also includes a country-level composite statistical capacity indicator based on evaluation of countries against a set of criteria in the areas of statistical practice, data collection and indicator availability, consistent with international recommendations. In addition, the database allows for cross-country comparisons of selected indicators. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/csid.html.

• The World Bank provides funding to PARIS21 from its development Grant Facility for the implementation of the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), jointly implemented with the World Bank Data Group. The ADP provides support to countries in the areas of microdata documentation, dissemination and preservation. The Russian Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was introduced to the software and practices promoted by the ADP.

• A web-based tool called the "Bulletin Board on Statistical Capacity (BBSC)" is available on the World Bank website. The tool aims to help strengthen the capacity of countries, especially IDA countries, to compile and use statistics with an overall aim of supporting the management of development results. Specifically, the BBSC: i) presents key information on national statistical systems collected from national and international sources, including planning, funding, human resources, census and surveys; ii) assesses countries' statistical capacity in key areas including institutional framework, statistical methodology, source data, data periodicity and timeliness through the use of a composite indicator, checklists, maps and charts; and iii) allows users to provide feedback and updates easily and quickly with interactive features. The BBSC is available online at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/bbsc.

Open Government

"The World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010, provides free, open and easy access to development data, and challenges the global community to use the data to create new solutions to reduce poverty. The World Bank is also responding to developing countries' demand for support to implement vibrant and sustainable open data initiatives. The Bank provides technical assistance and training tools for open data that can be used at the city, sector and national levels (see http://data.worldbank.org/open-government-data-toolkit). The Bank is engaged actively in countries such as Moldova, and providing on-demand advice to many other developing countries. By responding to these client demands, the World Bank Group promotes transparency, more efficient public service delivery, and innovation and economic growth. For instance, to enhance budget transparency and accountability, through instruments like BOOST the Bank is simultaneously helping authorities to better analyze, visualize and geo-map government spending for decision-making and making fiscal data more accessible to the public. Many other data driven applications have been created -and are publically available- as a result of Bank sponsored competitions (apps for development, apps for climate, apps for water and similar). The Bank’s openness agenda continues to gain momentum, eliminating barriers so that all stakeholders participate, collaborate, and innovate in democratizing development."

5. Strategic and managerial issues of official statistics (World Bank)5.3 Quality frameworks and measurement of performance of statistical systems and offices (World Bank)

Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)

• The World Bank has been working with the IMF on the Socio-demographic and Poverty modules of the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). The framework provides countries with a flexible structure for the qualitative assessment of various aspects of the statistical environment and infrastructure in which the data are collected, processed, and disseminated. It also identifies areas requiring technical assistance. The income poverty and education modules have been completed. Modules for health and population are under development.

Statistical Information Collection and Processing

• The World Bank gathers macroeconomic data and projections at least once a year from its country teams in a process known as the Unified Survey. These data and projections are used for planning and evaluating Bank operations. They underlie work on creditworthiness and risk assessment and they are an important part of the Bank's external publications such as the World Development Indicators, the country and regional At-a-Glance tables, and Global Development Finance. These data are collected in a standardized way using the World Bank's country database system known as the Live Database (LDB). The LDB is an Excel based system which standardizes the management of macroeconomic information by organizing information into separate sheets by topic and utilizing indicator codes, common layouts, and a variety of formatting, calculation, and reporting tools.

• The Development Data Platform (DDP), a web-based statistical data collection and dissemination system has integrated and streamlined time-series data management operations at the Bank, and has established a comprehensive platform to support the statistical data collection and dissemination functions of the Bank. Also, the software can be provided to countries to further the goal of statistical capacity building in these countries. The software developed in this project may be installed in these countries.

• The Data Collection System (DCS), is an internal repository for time series data and metadata collection, validation, processing including aggregation to various regional and income based groupings. It is used internally for a wide variety of socio-economic, financial and other topical indicators. The DCS provides data to the DDP (described above). As a platform, DCS is also provided to other organizations which have similar needs for statistical time series data collection and processing.

• The system has also incorporated micro data from household surveys allowing cross-country comparisons on key indicators by welfare status.

SDMX

• The BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank have set up a partnership to focus on establishing web-based standards for more efficient exchange and sharing of statistical information and metadata, which is called SDMX. As part of this effort the Bank is currently chairing the Sponsor group and actively participating in the SDMX Secretariat activities. The Bank is also a part of the newly formed SDMX Technical working group. In the SDMX Global Conference hosted jointly by the Bank and IMF much headway was made, and as a follow up to the conference, a new SDMX Action plan was drafted creating a roadmap for SDMX until 2015. The Bank has now capability to accept data in SDMX format and also provides download of the popular WDI database in SDMX-ML format. The Bank also has a SDMX Version 2.1 compatible REST based API for users to query the WDI data. See http://sdmx.org/

Statistical Capacity Building

Ongoing work

•The World Bank promotes statistical capacity building (SCB) mainly through financial instruments, advisory services, knowledge products, and partnerships. Our activities are centred around the implementation of the global action plans for statistics, the Marrakech Action Plans for Statistics (MAPS) and the more recent Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS. Main financial instruments are loans and grants. Lending projects are mostly long term and comprehensive in coverage. The projects typically aim at improved economic and social information for policy making and poverty reduction by strengthening planning, statistical legislations, infrastructure, human resources, data collection, processing, analyzing, archiving, and dissemination. A multi-country lending program, Statistical Capacity Building Program (STATCAP), became operational in 2004 to make investments in statistical development easier and more effective. It is designed to be simple to initiate, plan and operate.

• A $32 million loan under STATCAP for a statistical capacity building program in Ukraine was approved by the Bank's Executive Board in 2004, and will close by the end of 2012. The loan included finance for organizational and management reform, development of statistical infrastructure, modernization of computing infrastructure, technical assistance in various areas, and use of economic data in analysis and forecasting.

• In the Russian Federation as a part of the STATCAP facility a new $50 million Project for Development of the State Statistical System (STASYS 2) became effective in April 2008. The project is under implementation as a follow up to the STASYS project which was completed in December 2006. For the STASYS 2 Project, the World Bank finances 20% of the above amount to i) enforce further modernization of statistics methodology in compliance with the international standards; ii) strengthen development of modern design and technology for statistical data collection, processing, and dissemination; iii) ensure enhancement of social statistics, and iv) support human resource development in the statistical system. The World Bank and the Government of Russia is also in discussion regarding a large scale Reimbursable TA program.

• A $20 million loan under the STATCAP umbrella for Kazakhstan was approved by the World Bank in March 2011. The main objective of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the national statistical system to provide relevant, timely and reliable data in line with internationally accepted methodology and best practices. The project will upgrade the conceptual, methodological and analytical skills of the Kazakh Agency on Statistics of Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK) and other data producer and user agencies of the country. The loan agreement was signed in August 2011 and ratified by the Kazakh Parliament in December 2011. The project is currently under implementation.

• The World Bank manages a multi-donor Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB which aims to strengthen the capacity of statistical systems in developing countries. It supports: i) NSDS projects assisting the preparation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS); and ii) Statistical capacity improvement projects aiming at strengthening the capacity in key priority areas. TFSCB also funds participation of developing country representatives in meetings, seminars and workshops. TFSCB has financed below projects in the region that are under implementation.

• UNECE: Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries 2009-2011 $355,000.

• Russian Federation/CIS: The Need to Develop an Integrated System of Household Surveys to Collect Data on International Migration in the CIS States $320,000.

• A new Multi Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries has recently been established, with Russian Federation providing funding. ECASTAT’s overall objective is to address the capacity and financial constraints of the statistical systems of the countries in the region. ECASTAT will support the long-term process of improving development outcomes by strengthening the production of reliable and relevant data on a timely basis for evidence-based decision making at all levels of government in Eastern Europe and the CIS region. The trust fund will provide funding for regional as well as country specific projects, with a preference for low and lower-middle income countries. ECASTAT is expecting to allocate its first grants in early spring 2013.

• The World Bank maintains a web site on Statistical Capacity Building which provides information on the financial instruments, including STATCAP and TFSCB, advisory services, databases, and reference materials available in support of statistical capacity building. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/statcap.

• The World Bank has developed in the last three years the Virtual Statistical System which is an online resource for statisticians and users of statistics with information about how to manage statistical systems and how to make official statistics. The website includes a knowledge base and the VSS e-learning website called Modules for Strengthening Statistics. The site can be found at (www.virtualstatisticalsystem.org and www.statsys.org). The design of the site was an effort of working in partnership with several other international organizations and developed and developing countries.

• The Country Statistical Information Database provides information on national statistical systems useful for assessing statistical capacity and monitoring progress in statistical capacity building in developing countries. The database contains information encompassing various aspects of national statistical systems and operations, such as statistical law, national statistical strategy, statistical practice, censuses and surveys, national statistical agencies and publications, , and World Bank statistical projects. It also includes a country-level composite statistical capacity indicator based on evaluation of countries against a set of criteria in the areas of statistical practice, data collection and indicator availability, consistent with international recommendations. In addition, the database allows for cross-country comparisons of selected indicators. See http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/csid.html.

• The World Bank provides funding to PARIS21 from its development Grant Facility for the implementation of the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), jointly implemented with the World Bank Data Group. The ADP provides support to countries in the areas of microdata documentation, dissemination and preservation. The Russian Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was introduced to the software and practices promoted by the ADP.

• A web-based tool called the "Bulletin Board on Statistical Capacity (BBSC)" is available on the World Bank website. The tool aims to help strengthen the capacity of countries, especially IDA countries, to compile and use statistics with an overall aim of supporting the management of development results. Specifically, the BBSC: i) presents key information on national statistical systems collected from national and international sources, including planning, funding, human resources, census and surveys; ii) assesses countries' statistical capacity in key areas including institutional framework, statistical methodology, source data, data periodicity and timeliness through the use of a composite indicator, checklists, maps and charts; and iii) allows users to provide feedback and updates easily and quickly with interactive features. The BBSC is available online at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/bbsc.

Open Government

"The World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010, provides free, open and easy access to development data, and challenges the global community to use the data to create new solutions to reduce poverty. The World Bank is also responding to developing countries' demand for support to implement vibrant and sustainable open data initiatives. The Bank provides technical assistance and training tools for open data that can be used at the city, sector and national levels (see http://data.worldbank.org/open-government-data-toolkit). The Bank is engaged actively in countries such as Moldova, and providing on-demand advice to many other developing countries. By responding to these client demands, the World Bank Group promotes transparency, more efficient public service delivery, and innovation and economic growth. For instance, to enhance budget transparency and accountability, through instruments like BOOST the Bank is simultaneously helping authorities to better analyze, visualize and geo-map government spending for decision-making and making fiscal data more accessible to the public. Many other data driven applications have been created -and are publically available- as a result of Bank sponsored competitions (apps for development, apps for climate, apps for water and similar). The Bank’s openness agenda continues to gain momentum, eliminating barriers so that all stakeholders participate, collaborate, and innovate in democratizing development."